Blog #4

During our “We Need Diverse Comics” we talked about different stereotyping portrayed in the books we read. American Born Chinese is a perfect indication of how people use stereotypes today in this world. Many people are made fun of for who they are and it needs to stop. American Born Chinese and the article I found about Muslim misconceptions help us better understand the stereotypes around the world.

            American Born Chinese is about three stories that all relate to each other. Jin Wang comes to a new school and gets mad fun of for how he looks and what he eats. He has trouble making new friends because people think he is different. A bunch of kids come up and ask if he is eating dog for lunch. Eating cats and dogs is a common misconception that people think that all Asians eat. It is a huge stereotype because no one eats cats and dogs.

This article I found that talks about the common misconceptions about Muslims talks about the same thing. When we think of Muslims, we automatically assume that they are working for ISIS and all of them are bad and trying to start for war. That is not the case and I see this literally all the time on Facebook and it blows my mind how much ignorance there is online. People are being fed the wrong information and it is making them look bad. I understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but some of the statements I read on Facebook make me want to throw my laptop out of my room and deactivate the social media site.

            American Born Chinese also shows how people think that all Asians dress. Chin-Kee gets introduced early into the story and he is Danny’s cousin. Danny can’t stand the way he looks and he just wants Chin-Kee to just go back home and to stop visiting him once a year. Danny can’t stand to be around him. Chin-Kee was the typical Chinese stereotype with everything he did. During lunch, he would eat noodles with cat in it, which is clearly the stereotype I talked about earlier. Chin-Kee is the perfect example of how others view Asians.

            Going back to the article about Muslims, this is just like Chin-Kee. Americans and others view Muslims sometimes in a bad way. People get the wrong idea when they see a Muslim women walking through the street with a hijab on. They automatically think she is a terrorist and get scared of her. Many people don’t know that a majority of Muslims are peaceful and they mean no harm. Again, this has a lot to do with social media and how you were raised. It really stinks knowing that one time something bad happened, you instantly keep that thought in your head and it never leaves you.

            American Born Chinese and the article on Muslims is a great example of common stereotypes in the world today. This is what’s wrong with the world because we have a certain stereotype in our heads about a certain person, and it’s not even true. Social media sites such as Facebook can often divert from the actual meaning and in some cases, even promote racism. People need to be careful about what they post and know that not everyone out there is evil.