Race, Gender and Media Class Reflection Part 7

 This week for class, the topics we were given was over Arab and Asian perceptions in the media. One discussion topic was to breakdown the different Asian communities that we see either at our college, UNT, and in our hometown, and then discussing the media coverage of these groups. Seeing as I have an Asian roommate and had many friends back in high school, I feel well suited to talk about this topic.

In my community at UNT, there are a wide variety of Asian groups. My roommate, Andrew, is Vietnamese, and he participates in the Asian Student Association as the Athletic Director. Aside from just having an Asian Student Association, UNT also has student associations for Filipino, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, and Japanese students, as well as a multitude of other organizations. To be honest, I didn't even know that ethnic groups had all of these different sub-sects of organizations specifically devoted down to people from one country all the way up to Asian people as a collective.

I think part of that has to do with the town and high school I went to. Compared to some of the 6A schools that are in DFW, my school, for being a 5A, didn't offer as much in terms of organizations that the bigger schools did. Even at UNT, I have seen a much more diverse group of students compared to my high school, which was 86% hispanic. I am a music minor, so I spend some time in the music building where there is a large number of Korean students who study there. When they talk to each other, I hear them converse in their native language, which I think is super cool just to show the diversity that a college campus can offer.

In terms of media coverage, I can honestly say that I haven't seen much on media pieces that force a bias/stereotype against Asian people. Maybe it is because I'm not paying attention as much, but I feel that the media wars between white/Black people and men and women are much more prominent. However, I will say that I think the way the media portrays China as our enemy and the ongoing tension that Xi Jinping and Trump have going on can negatively influence American opinion over Chinese people, which in turn affects opinion of Asians.