The heroin epidemic in New York is spreading, and who's to blame? Asians.
Deep within the jungles of Laos, American soldiers hide under the cover of a mountain chain—a dragon-like line of humps and spikes. On a mission to bust drug dens along the White Heroin Trail, which have supplied heroin cartels in New York for decades, these soldiers, armed with grenades, knives, automatic rifles, and truck loads of ammunition, advance, slink through the trees silently like predators. Hearts racing in anticipation of meeting the unknown, exotic, and mysterious leaders of the White Heroin Trail, they train their weapons as if they are fighting monsters, creatures not of human nature. This mission is a game of life and death.
Based on the recounts of "The Heroin Battlefield, Half a World Away in Asia,"written by Peter Kerr of the New York Times, the narrative above demonstrates how the media portrays the heroin industry in South Asia. Through such articles, the Western world crafts the normalized interpretation of the Orient— a wild and mysterious land that holds all types of treasures and traps— through elements of danger and suspense to build the perfect story for a media frenzy.
However, while Kerr frames the heroin epidemic in Laos as one that is treacherous and unpredictable, how exactly does his article relate to Asians as groups of people? How does he use his story to enforce stereotypes?
As the soldiers move closer to the drug den, they see horrors: an enclosed enclave, dumped with 40 pounds of morphine and 90 liters of liquid opium product- the creation of human lust and filth. At dawn, they closed in on the lab, setting off two 3.5-millimeter rocket explosions while firing assault rifles 10 minutes straight. As the dust cleared from the raid, not only did feces, corpses, and failed drug products litter the den, the overarching sense of uncivilized greed and corruption continued to linger in the air.
Through corporate media such as the New York Times, the socially constructed view of Asian people in general become associated with the conception of the "unknown," seemingly a different 'species' to be dealt with and controlled by Western powers. This portrayal perpetrates a serious and unconscious perception that skews the truth and misleads the public, creating the Western constructed concept of "orientalism," one defined with exoticism, romanticism, and mystery. Reflecting the three arguments of Edward Said, a professor of literature and author of "Orientalism," the mis-portrayal of Asians in Western media shapes the Orient as an economic playing field, a scapegoat, and also an area of alien civilization.
For the West, the Orient is an area of economic transaction and power exploitation. An operation that funnels over $41 million into Laos but also stimulates thousands of drug transactions overseas in New York, the White Heroin Trail is a lucrative business that draws in traffickers from around Asia, creating global connections with major power players such as China and the United States. However, because the White Heroin Trail has a market that plays and benefits the West, the idea of orientalism appears in the form of a power struggle. Therefore, due to their involvement in these cartel operations, some Western businesses, while operating illegally, can still contribute to the success of these drug dens. On the other hand, with the American army intervening to stop the operation, they are still deemed superior with an upper hand in cartel control, whether for dominance of monetary gain.
Additionally, with New York involved in these drug operations, the media frames the West as an innocent player, placing the burden of addiction, violence, and guerilla style warfare over drugs solely on Asians. The use of a scapegoat is evident through associations with negative reinforcement and imagery, such as those drug dens, which enforce Asian inferiority due to their "uncivilized" habits. These ideas, all reinforced by the media, are the culprits that created the Western "Orient," a concept built from the perspective of the American soldiers, who "risk" their lives to curb the drug epidemic, crowning them as "heroes" of civilization.
Furthermore, the experience of the American soldiers recounted by these news outlets fuels and creates stereotypes about Asians. By describing the surrounding mountains as a dragon, the media links Asia with connotations of mystery and fear, seemingly as if its inhabitants were foreign species to be tamed by the West. In addition, by using excessive weapons such as grenades, rockets, and assault rifles against these Asian drug traffickers, the soldiers devalue an Asian life as just a burden to society. Even the atmosphere of the narrative— the deep forest brush, suffocating heat, and the filthy dens— frames them as uncivilized tribes living in oblivion to society, focused on heroin as if their lives depended on it.
In reference to Doyle who recounted a Chinese opium den in London as filthy and rotten, the heroin dens reflected similar imagery that indicted a continuing trend of drug abuse as if to say that Asia never moved past the era of uncivilization. This type of portrayal is the foundation of the 'seen-as-less-as' power struggle that the media perpetrates, indicating Asians as exotic, mysterious, and gullible beings that need to be exposed to the righteousness of Western civilization.
These three misconceptions define what "Orientalism" has become today, yet all of these views are based on stereotypes, biased eyewitnesses, and media outlets that want to frame the West as more powerful, more civilized, and more superior, racially. Thus, by using Asia as a scapegoat to account for the heroin epidemic that affects Americans of all ages and races, the blame of liability and illegality is removed from the West. However, this thus shows Asians as a homogenous race that is only attuned to the profiles of dirty money, creating an unfair and biased view against all Asians alike.
In tandem, the media fails to mention the causes of these cartels, which removes the emotional and real-world struggles behind the lives of these drug traffickers. For example, with poverty raging through some of these Asian areas, this drug operation is a lucrative source of revenue used to support families and friends at high risks.
According to Yanan Wang of the Washington Post, the stereotypes and social currents that Asians live under today because of stories like Kerr's, are part of a larger problem and a reoccurring trend in society. The Western world, due to their early industrialization and established position on a world scale, feels an obligation to defend their reputation and continue to be the civilizers of the world; therefore, these epidemics are always blamed on minority groups, immigrants, or any of other groups who deviate from the "prism of whiteness" that define the norm of society from a white man's perspective, signifying a globalizing problem.
However, while the term Orientalism is used less at a lesser extent to describe people, the term is still heavily present in official use. Thus, this unconscious mis-portrayal of the Orient as pawn for the West, whether through markets, scapegoats, or power outlets, must be exposed to reveal the true intentions of mainstream media today and perhaps propose a just solution once and for all.
