The Perpetual Foreigner

The Perpetual Foreigner The Perpetual Foreigner stereotype is one of the earliest and most pervasive of the stereotypes of Asian Americans today. The Perpetual Foreigner stereotype began almost as soon as Asian people began to migrate to America in the 1830s.


What is it? An inability to assimilate which leads to the view that no matter how long the Asian American has been in American they are still perceived as "foreign". This is typically the line of thinking that leads to "Where are you really from?". Many white Americans believe that because an Asian American looks different than Caucasian Americans, that that person does not truly belong to America and that their skin color prevents them from truly being an American and always viewed as the foreigner, even though this person could have been born here and their family has lived here for over 12 generations! Asian Americans under this stereotype are often viewed as recently "off the boat" and many people in America often express surprise when Asian Americans do not fit this stereotype of Asians who, since their so foreign, share believed qualities exclusive to caucasian Americans, such as speaking "good" English.



 Example 1: This stereotype carries with it the idea that because of an Asian Americans ethnicity that they can't assimilate into mainstream American culture, which is viewed as Caucasian and Asians do not fit this mold. This is primarily one of the reasons that Asian Americans are typically excluded from mainstream "slice of American Pie" television shows, as in King of Queens (1998). While this show never had an Asian American as one of the main characters, in one scene they actually go against the perpetual foreigner stereotype by showing an Asian man who is not at all fitting the typical Asian, with bad english accent,  

Example 2: Virgin Mobile The story of this image actually speaks volumes just as the actual message behind the advertisement. Essentially, "dump your pen friend" is basically saying that the virgin mobile should stop messaging their uncool friends. The image they use to basically define the uncool friend to be dumped is the perpetual foreigner Asian girl portrayed through her peace sign she is portrayed as the typical Asian geek that should not be dumped. This girl to many of the people who viewed the ad viewed her as someone not from America, that it might be a picture of an Asian girl in Asia when in reality the girl is actually just taking a picture in front of a church bbq in Texas. In addition this picture was actually used in this ad campaign without her being informed. It was taken off a photo site that her pastor posted the picture to. I sincerely doubt they would have gone about using a picture for an ad campaign using a Caucasian person.

Example 3: The average Asian is a series of skits played on the sketch comedy series MAD tv. Played by Bobby Lee, the show literally focuses on the life of an actual Asian guy. He has none of the supposed characteristics of the typical Asian person other than his race, no superior intellect, foreign accent or as exhibited in this clip, any photography or musical skill. However, in the skit all those around him, like still in real life, impose these stereotypes onto him even though he actually does not exhibit these characteristics at all. Example 4: While the internet has given people of all ethnicities opportunities to express themselves, it has also made it a lot easier to spread racist and stereotypical remarks around. One site in particular, urbandictionary.com, is a site where absolutely anyone can define a word. I searched "Asian" on the site and the majority of comments were positive, some people showed pictures of themselves as examples of Asians, while others described the geographical regions they come from. However, some used the site to define Asians with stereotypes, but even with all that hate the majority of comments were in defense of Asian people. There rebuttles weren't to give the positive stereotypes of Asians but to actually just defend Asian people on the grounds that they are actually just people like anyone else.

A race of people from Asia or have Asian in their blood. Not everyone in this race is from a slut, nor gets straight As, nor is amazing at computer games. Stop with the biased definitions! Lets set everyone straight: No race is "stupid" or "slutty" or plain fat asses. Caucasians, Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, etc: we all are people. So don't stereotype and stop making up these crazy facts. And who the hell cares if one race is hotter than the other or one race has the geeks? Seriously. James: Dude did you see that Asian girl? She looks like such a slut. Ben: Shut the fuck up! Stop stereotyping, and that happens to be my friend! She's not a slut. *punches* by supergreen12 Example 5: One of the great things about social media sites and youtube is that anyone can bring attention to an issue and broadcast it to thousands to spread awareness. A particular project was done by a student on Youtube where she composed a video for people to look at to see whether or not they suffered from "The Perpetual Foreigner Paradigm". The video also has an accompanying Twitter account which people every so often given examples of when they were stereotyped. https://twitter.com/pforeigner Example 6: The perpetual foreigner stereotype essentially tries to put all asian people into a mold that they all retain this cetain "asianess", this video goes against the perpetual foreigner stereotype as it shows the many accents and personalities an asian can have.