"Hey! Be a man! Do the right thing!"

I’ve never really given the portrayal, or lack of, of Asians, or minorities for that matter, in mainstream media much consideration. But after watching the film in class, I’m left with a quite disturbing feeling. Whether it’s the portrayal of Asians as slightly effeminate-kung-fu fighters like Jackie Chan, or Latinos as drug-dealing-gangsters in Training Day, or of Eddie Murphy as a loud-overweight-extremely rude woman in Norbit, minorities definitely get the short end of the stick when it comes to movie roles.

“Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?”

I mean sure Jackie Chan is a multimillionaire with plenty of hit movies, but the fact still remains that he always plays the same stereotypical role. While most of his movies are action-filled, they invariably end up becoming comedies. For most of the movie, we are laughing at, not with, Jackie Chan. I know this is similar to what the movie mentioned, but it stuck with me as particularly disturbing.

“Vato you won’t believe what I saw. I saw these pack a guys and they act real hard. They
twisted their fingers say you know who we are...”

Stereotypes for minorities don’t just stay confined to movies either. The lyrics above are from a Snoop Dog song titled Vato, in which B-Real, a Mexican-Cuban rapper from the group Cypress Hill, glorifies being a gangster and the “street-life.” You would figure that someone who almost died from a gunshot wound to the lung wouldn’t be so happy with the street-life mentality of gangsters. The ironic point of it all is that many rappers get their big break for telling about their harrowing stories growing up in the ghetto. Think of Tupac’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” or “Juicy” by Notorious BIG. These songs were politically and socially charged. They tackled social issues of teen pregnancy and urban poverty. They brought to the forefront all that was wrong with urban America. And while they became hit singles in their own right, things changed between freshmen and sophomore albums for such artists. Somewhere along the line it was no longer acceptable to bring up such issues as poverty or racism in music, and music became more mainstream. Soon songs like “Hit Em’ Up” began beaming out of stereos across America. Now we get B-Real telling us it’s ok to be a gangster. Tupac instructs us to “Grab your glocks when you see Tupac.”

In class we argued that Asians get stuck with these shitty roles because there is a lack of action on all parts involved. Actors and screenwriters don’t bring quality stuff to the table. Directors and head of movie agencies are afraid to put a minority at center stage. And audiences aren’t really ready to see Jet Li kiss Aaliyah.

But I think it is much more one sided than that. Much like Tupac early on, actors and screenwriters ARE bringing media that is controversial and that challenge the stereotypes held by America. And audiences out there ARE willing to accept politically charged movies like Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” The problem lies with the studios. The people in charge are much more concerned with filling their pockets with money than with tackling social issues. Why take the chance and back a movie that may challenge mainstream media and result in a millions of dollars in lost revenue, when you could have “Rush Hour 4?”