Another stereotype is based on
dialect. This goes far back. Language is communication of thoughts and feelings
through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or
written symbols. Language is tied in with culture; it can access culture like
food will. It is the oldest human form of expression. Because language is
access to culture, it varies around the world. When a person knows one language
but ties to learn another it blends into the second language creating an accent, some will say.
According to dictionary.com, an accent is prominence of a syllable in terms of
differential loudness, or of pitch, or length, or of a combination of these.
These accents are what people label
and stereotype. But it is not people who are stereotyping it is also media.
Media will have someone with no accent play a character with an accent because
it is more authentic to what seems to be their culture but sometimes it is just for laughs. For example, it is exotic to come from another land with an accent than to play an Vietnamese girl who grew up in New York with a Brooklyn accent.
In Breakfast at Tiffany’s , Mickey Rooney a white man plays the role of
an Japanese man. He wore makeup and a prosthetic mouthpiece to change his
features displaying his buckteeth.
Rooney was given a lot of criticism
and complements for his role.
Another famous character that is
stereotyped is Raj Koothrappali , played by an Indian actor Kunal
Nayyar on The Big Bang Theory. His character has a thick Indian accent and plays a nerd scientist. He believes in Karma but eats beef and hates India. He’s
timid to talk to women and like typical Indian men he loves to drink. He has many siblings but one appears in the show. His father
plays a gynecologist, many Indian students are pushed into a medical field by
their parents or into an engineering field. Most Indian college students feel as if they do not have a choice.
The MetroPCS commercial also stereotype Indians with them flaunting their mustaches and thick accents
around.
“We like to think that if we had
the chance to relive the past, we would break from old norms and stand up to
injustices like sexism and racism. Here is our chance. Do not stand idly by
while another minority group is victimized. Refuse to buy or use MetroPCS
products.
Boycott MetroPCS”
Comments:
Patel Punjab, MON
APR 5, 2010 at 8:52 AM
Calm down slum dog, its just a
commercial. Its ironic that cheap indian’s are probably the number one customer
of Metro PCS!
Anton DeNagrieve, MON
JUL 5, 2010 at 4:01 PM
Metropcs appears to be a scam
company from the negative consumer affair complaints I’ve seen (over 100 and
counting). Personally, I don’t care if the ads are racist or not, the last
thing I want to see on TV are more indians…it’s bad enough I keep losing jobs
because of them….why the hell Pakistan can’t doing something about it (hint) is
beyond me. Where the hell is Custer when we need him? Oh, wait, that was the
other Indians. Oh well, whatever works!
And no, I’m not a racist, just one
small person tired of trying to work against the flood of INDIA Inc. Try doing
what they’re doing in their country and see where it gets you.
Gedde Watanabe's as Long Duk Dong
in Sixteen Candles. Dong plays an exchange student from an unidentified Asian
nation. He tries to mimic the American language, such as slang. Some of his famous
line are, “oh sexy girlfriend” and “what’s happening hot stuff?” On top of that
every single Asian student in the high school was called ‘Donger” as well as “Bruce
Lee because of him. Ironically Bruce Lee is another stereotype in most his films he does his own sound effects for his action scenes.
American Dad and Family Guy represents Chinese stereotypes in several episodes
-ironically instead of white parents adopting an Asian baby, Francine from American Dad was adopted by an Chinese couple.
S7. E5 "White Rice"
Asians making fun of other Asians...
This is how stereotypes start:
Once someone hears something that is pronounced differently or oddly to them it can become an object for people to imitate. For example: saying all Chinese people say the same few words over and over again. But "ching chong wong" does not mean a thing in Chinese, there are several different languages in China not only Mandarin. Generalizing creates these stereotypes.
Not all Asians speak in a high pitch voice, put emphasis on every word or have accents like they are new to America, many are second or third generations. Even the term Asians is radicalization of the nations in Asia. Each nationality wants to be an ethnic group.
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