Asian-American response to Fox News comedy sketch

[Syfenq]

http://college.usatoday.com/2016/10/06/about-that-fox-news-segment-filled-with-asian-american-stereotypes-we-fixedwattersfail/

In an episode of a Fox News segment called “Watters’ World,” host Jesse Watters went to Chinatown in New York City and interviewed some members of the Asian-American community.

The piece recycles numerous stereotypes of Chinese and Asian people, mocks some of the interview subjects with reaction clips from popular movies, and generally makes most of the interviewees look like buffoons.

Many who saw the segment called out Watters and Fox News for the use of offensive stereotypes and expressed outrage and disgust.

Here's a personal note from the translator who worked on this video. I think it captures a lot of the frustration felt among model minorities and diaspora communities at people assuming that they don't have a stake in who's running our country, or that people seem them as a monolithic voting bloc.

I got to interview all of the native Mandarin speakers, cut those clips and translate all of the subtitles. More importantly, I used my Chinese language skills to explain to these people what was even the point of sharing this perspective with America. They don't think anyone should - or does - give a shit about them. Voter apathy for them is chosen as a defense mechanism for the racial wounds America inflicted. They softened up as a favor to their posterity - me who insisted they mattered.

I'm proud of the hard work we put into this but I'm sad about what it revealed to me. My people aren't proud enough. But you made it to America. My dad was the first in his family to go to college and trade in his countryside dialect for an American Master's and PhD in different STEM subjects. My grandfather rode buses cross country to see America when he was 72 years old and spoke literally no English. And every day international students in the j school get self conscious about their accents, I want to shake them and say no one should EVER shame you for mastering multiple languages, because let me tell you, bilingual people seem to shame immigrants a little less than others.

Even though the video mostly focuses on Chinese-American immigrant experiences and Chinese-Americans form the largest subgroup of Asian-Americans, the issues of group identity and assimilation easily apply to other ethnicities and other minority racial groups as well.

[Seylland]

Saw that floating around tumblr and reddit, the man is an idiot.

It wasn't funny nor was it blatantly offensive (only somewhat miffed). It was more bad taste and pure idiocy.

This is why new immigrants and those who are citizens end up failing to assimilate, because this kind of bullcrap prevents proper assimilation and integration. It makes it seem that they are unwelcome or simply an 'other' as a result.

[Krasny-Volny]

Malaysian (by birth) living off and on in the United States here (occasionally I return to Malaysia to work, but not at this moment). I wasn't raised in the US so I can't speak for those that were, but this is my perspective:

I don't think Americans of Asian descent as a community feel politically underrepresented. I live in the Deep South (indeed, one of the poorest counties in the continental USA), and Americans of Asian descent seem to have the easiest time integrating, voting for local candidates, and feeling at home, much more so than even black Americans, who have lived here much longer.

BTW OP, "Model minority" is just that: a stereotype. Few outside the Asian community in the US seem to be aware that there are Asian immigrants living in poverty like everybody else, and Asian organized crime rackets aplenty too. Even Asian gangs, especially among the Cambodians and Laotians.

[Jamilkhuze]

Malaysian (by birth) living off and on in the United States here (occasionally I return to Malaysia to work, but not at this moment). I wasn't raised in the US so I can't speak for those that were, but this is my perspective:

I don't think Americans of Asian descent as a community feel politically underrepresented. I live in the Deep South (indeed, one of the poorest counties in the continental USA), and Americans of Asian descent seem to have the easiest time integrating, voting for local candidates, and feeling at home, much more so than even black Americans, who have lived here much longer.

BTW OP, "Model minority" is just that: a stereotype. Few outside the Asian community in the US seem to be aware that there are Asian immigrants living in poverty like everybody else, and Asian organized crime rackets aplenty too. Even Asian gangs, especially among the Cambodians and Laotians.

Yes I'm well aware of the model minority stereotype and how unrepresentative it is of the Asian-American experience. My parents came to the US in the 90s for graduate studies and they were able to leverage that education into lucrative careers in IT that allowed my family to join the ranks of upper-middle class suburban America by the time I was in high school. Growing up, it was expected that I would graduate from college, get a well-paying job, and become a productive, engaged member of society. This feeling of entitlement has played an important role in determining my political consciousness.

The socioeconomics and demographics of API-Americans may be different where you're at, but I suspect many of the Asian-Americans you've encountered were also raised to integrate into American society and to believe that they have a stake in it, hence their high levels of political engagement. This mentality requires a certain kind of resilience, flexibility, and social capital that not all Asian-Americans have. I would say it's more common for Asian-Americans to feel excluded or shunned from mainstream society where there are high rates of poverty or where society is more strongly divided along racial and ethnic lines, such as NYC. While most of my generation feels at home in this country, that might not necessarily be the case for our parents or grandparents, who still make up the bulk of the Asian-American population.

[Herskerstad]

Really a case of a tempest in a teapot. He does silly colabs all over the place, Chinatown simply did not get preferential treatment.

[Saiwania]

I have to say that overall, I hate Jesse Watters. He has a long history of intentionally interviewing only the dumbest people he finds to push whatever bullshit narrative he wants to for Fox News viewers using verbal gongs and zingers. He offers nothing of value.

[Syfenq]

Really a case of a tempest in a teapot. He does silly colabs all over the place, Chinatown simply did not get preferential treatment.

Yeah, but it also goes to show how bad his sketches are he is. He's like the Donald Trump of political commentators- not evil by any means but definitely an egocentric, pompous blowhard.

http://thefederalist.com/2016/10/05/jesse-watters-problem-isnt-hes-racist-hes-jackass/

Perhaps Watters is a racist, but that’s not what’s wrong with his trip to Chinatown. What’s really wrong with the whole segment is that he’s a jerk who conflates being mean with humor.

Watters’ shtick seems to be catching people off guard and then heading to the editing booth to try to make himself seem funny. If supercuts of old movies laid over people who don’t speak English is your thing, I suppose it’s hilarious. If you actually expect jokes, Watters’ style leaves much to be desired, but that doesn’t make him a racist. Just a jackass.

[New Grestin]

Fox News says and does something poorly informed and stupid.

In other news, scientists believe water may, in fact, be wet.