1. Introduction to Asian American Studies
ETHN 14:
Introduction to Asian American Studies
Department of Ethnic Studies & Asian American Studies Program
California State University, Sacramento
Week 12 Session 2
API Gender and Sexuality in Media

2. Last Time
Discuss the relationship between media representation and political representation.
Conduct a Critical Race Theory (CRT) analysis of Episode 4 of Master of None.

3. Today Gender and Sexuality
Conduct a Critical Race Theory (CRT) analysis of Episode 4 of Master of None.

4. CRT Framing Ideas (adapted from Delgado and Stefanic (2001))
Four Key Themes among CRT Scholars
Interest convergence
Interest‐convergence principle proposes that change benefitting people and communities of color only occurs when those interests also benefit Whites.
Revisionist history
History needs to be understood from the bottom-up not just the top-down.
Critique of liberalism
Colorblindness and the view that race is not real is more harmful than color consciousness.
Structural determinism
Societal structures significantly impact life experiences and chances.

5. Central Idea Borrowed from CRT
Commitment to social justice
Race as a social construct – the meanings of race change over time and space.
Racism is ordinary – privilege and bias are ingrained into our society in a level that is often subtle and undetected.
Experiential knowledge is valid
This allows scholars to position racial and ethnic minority experiences on equal footing with dominant group experiences. (Narrative vs. Counternarrative)
Intersectionality - Forms of discrimination intersect and inform one another. Race is often hidden.
Master Narrative vs. Conternarratives
Master Narrative – Closely related to hegemony. Those representations of the past . Often appear objective and authorless. How we understand our self and others through
Counternarrative – Viewpoints from marginalized groups.

6. Burden of Representation
Racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation minority groups face pressures to simultaneously represent authenticity and respond to stereotypes.

7. Consider our materials these past two weeks:
What stereotypes exist of APIs? Of API women? Of API LGBTQ populations?
What roadblocks get in the way of more cultural products (movies, TV shows, theater productions, music) by and about APIs?
How can APIs overcome these roadblocks?
Why might it be important to overcome these roadblocks? What impact can more racial, ethnic, class, gender, and sexual orientation diversity have on our society?

8. To Prepare for Next Session
OBD on Huang
The Right to Excel: Asian Americans and Educational Opportunity (Fong Chapter) Will be posted this afternoon.