Responses to discussion questions

Hi, sorry for the late posting - I though we were going to discussion the questions in class.
I think the social status of AA is more minimized than is oppressed. Because a lot of Whites view AA as model minorities, some of them actually admire Asian cultures. But because of their lack of understandings of the diverse and complicated history and values of Asian cultures, they often generalize or stereotype AA identities.
One obvious area is the racial depictions of Asian actresses in TV and film. The racial images and assumptions reinforce the hypersexual and hyperfeminine imagery of Asian women (e.g. Charlie's Angles, Joy Luck Club, and Lipstick Jungle.) Being constructed as "the Orient," we lost our voice in America.
Mass media is also responsible to keep status quo intact. When I was doing some research on the 1968 SFSC Strike, most of the news articles that I found focus on the Black students and treated the effect of AA as secondary.
I believe art is a healthy way to decolonize White society's imagery of AA. In order to continue to resist stereotypes and struggle for a voice, filmmakers ought to be responsible for their interpretations of cultural representations of ethnic identities. Moreover, audience need to investigate what is playing on the screen and read beyond the surface intent. As college students, we ought to read critically and voice our opinion in anyway we can. These are some forms of resistance we can use to go against the flow of hegemonic power.