Why Are Asians Stereotyped?

As humans, we stereotype people everyday based on the color of their skin. In class, we've recently been discussing the stereotypes we place on African Americans and how society has deemed them as "criminals". This got me thinking about how we stereotype people of other races... Asians in particular.

We typically think of Asians as smart, competitive, and good at everything they do. But why? After reading an article written by the BBC, I think I've come up with an answer: China's one child policy.

In China, couples are legally only allowed to have one child. When parents only have one child, they don't have to divide their money and attention between numerous children and can spend all their money on one. The parents are now able to invest their money in the best schools, tutors, piano teachers, etc for their child. They pay a lot of attention to that child in hopes that they will succeed. By only being allowed to have one child, the parents are being forced to put all their eggs in one basket. They want their child to have the best life they can, so they push them to do well in school and activities.

The single children in China develop very differently than a child with siblings would. They aren't able to have that close relationship with a brother or sister that lasts a lifetime and can only have short term relationships with friends as they grow up. Studies have found that only children are "significantly less trusting, less trustworthy" and less optimistic.

China's one child policy has since been relaxed slightly and some parents are now able to qualify to have more than one child. However, many parents chose not to have more children because they feel like since they would have to divide their attention and money between several children, their children will feel lost in competition with other children. Do you think the one child policy has benefitted the single children or hurt them?

Tornadoes vs. Typhoons: Who Wins?

A couple weeks ago, a destructive tornado hit the Illinois town of Washington.The tornado covered a lot of ground and damaged more than 2,400 homes. The death toll has risen to 7 and many of the survivors are telling their inspirational stories about how they made it through all their hardships regarding the tornado. It was all over the news. Every time I turned the TV on every news station would be talking about this "disaster". I assumed the extreme amount of coverage was because I live in Illinois and this is an event that has occurred close to home. But I got a call from a friend in Connecticut asking if I was okay and if my house got destroyed. I was surprised to get a call from her because I didn't expect the news coverage to reach other parts of the United States, and if it did I thought it would be minor coverage. She thought it was weird that I was surprised and told me that the news channels made it seem like a horrible disaster had destroyed every one's homes.

Not too long before the tornadoes hit Illinois, a devastating typhoon destroyed the Philippines. The death toll is nearly 4,000 and continues to rise as debris is being cleaned up. Almost twice as many people have already been killed in the Philippines than the number of homes damaged in Washington, IL. Yet, our attention is focused more on those affected in Illinois than those affected in the Philippines. Only 14% of Americans said that they have contributed to relief efforts for the typhoon. When surveyed, less than a third of Americans said they were following the news on the typhoon in the Philippines. This is less than half of the Americans that followed the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Why?

One may argue that we see more people from Illinois in our daily lives. However, an article in the LA Times states that there are 3.4 million Filipinos living in the United States (roughly 1.25X the population of Chicago) and America has strong political ties to the Philippines. Then why are people so uninterested in the disaster in the Philippines? Why is there more news coverage of the tornadoes than there is of the typhoon?