Growing up, I formed my perception of normality off of what TV showed me. What TV showed me as beauty was blond hair and blue eyes, and that “normal” food was mac and cheese and steak with potatoes. Across every channel, what TV showed me was that none of these famous people in movies, sports, or politics looked like me.
In movies, the only roles any Asian would play consisted of nerds, doctors, and occasionally smart sidekicks. In sports, I saw people who looked like me only mainly in ping pong and badminton. As an avid baseball fan, I idolized Taiwanese pitcher Chien-Ming Wang because someone from my country who looked like me had become so successful in the United States playing a true “American” sport..
I remember when Linsanity happened in basketball. Everyone was talking about it regardless of whether they watched basketball or not because this was something huge for the Asian American community. Seeing Asians in contact sports was rare. Seeing an Asian actually thriving in basketball - now that was practically unheard of. Suddenly, all my guy friends were playing basketball after school - if Jeremy Lin could get into the NBA, then so can they.
This year’s USA Winter Olympic Figure Skating team was 50% Asian. Of the bunch, many skaters, including Mirai Nagasu and Karen Chen, cited Asian figure skaters in the 90s like Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi as their inspirations.
When kids see someone like them succeed in a field, they start to believe that they too can achieve the same thing.
People often underestimate the importance of diversity to the younger generation. Without seeing someone like them in a field they encounter, kids can easily assume that the field is not for them, wasting away the potential talent that they possess.
In Hollywood, Asian actors account for only 1% of all the leading roles. There have been 42 total Asian Americans in Congress since 1957, a painfully low number considering that Asian Americans make up 5.6% of the current US population. There is a considerable number of people behind each minority demographic, yet not nearly enough role models for minority youths to follow.
There needs to be enough representation so that news of an Asian American winning a leading part to a movie no longer warrants an excited uproar among the Asian communities. We shouldn’t be so shocked that someone who looks like us nabbed the main role when we have every right and every skill to win it.
Let minority representation become common sense so that kids no longer have to ask their parents to let them dye their hair blonde to look pretty or think that their acting futures only consist of comedic and nerdy roles.
Let minority representation become common sense so that kids of all races can grow up believing that they can be anything they want to
