John Oliver Decries U.S. for ‘Racist’ Treatment of Chinese Titanic Survivors, Slams ‘Model Minority Myth’ as ‘Tool of White Supremacy’
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Leia IdlibyJun 7th, 2021, 7:59 am
John Oliver highlighted the history of racism in towards Asian Americans in the United States — dispelling the model minority myth as "a tool of white supremacy."
On Sunday's Last Week Tonight, the host exposed the nation's "racist" and "insensitive" treatment of six Chinese passengers who survived the sinking of the Titanic but were prohibited from reaching the U.S. shores.
"Instead, they were forced onto another boat and sent away the very next day," Oliver explained. "Which isn't just racist, it's insensitive. Did it really have to be another boat? They had just been on the best boat and it fucking sucked. Could you not put them on a zeppelin or something? At the very least, let's try and mix up the doomed turn of the century transportation methods here."
Oliver additionally detailed past immigration laws, explaining how they impacted each demographic's arrival to the U.S. differently.
Asian Americans, for example, were stamped as the model minority group, which Oliver explained as part of a tactic used to pit minorities against each other.
"A prevailing narrative most people hear regarding Asian Americans is one of the conflicts between them and other communities of color like during the 1992 LA Uprising," said the host. "It's not that those tensions aren't very real but it's not the whole picture either. It's also a narrative that fits a much larger pattern in which White America has actively pitted Asian Americans against other communities."
Oliver also said that the U.S. used the success of Chinese and Japanese Americans as a means to disprove systemic racism — using the prosperity of one demographic to suppress another.
"Basically America prioritized wealthy, more educated Asian immigrants then turned to Black people who'd been subjugated for centuries and said 'See? They're educated and successful. Why aren't you?'" Oliver said.
The host went on to detail the present-day repercussions of racism towards Asian Americans, revealing that suicide is the leading cause of death among young Asian American adults.
"This is what happens when you're consistently told to quietly and happily accept discrimination because your version is the nice racism," said Oliver. "There is no nice racism, there is no silver lining to it, and there is no working your way out of it.
"You're still perpetually treated as a foreigner, still asked where you're 'really from,' and Asian Americans always seem to be just one geopolitical crisis away from becoming the targets of violence yet again, whether it's those internment camps for Japanese Americans, or the spate of attacks on South Asians after 9/11, or all the recent racial violence during the pandemic," he continued. So the model minority myth is both a tool of white supremacy and a trap."
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At the start of the segment Oliver says that a survey was recently taken where the respondents were asked to name a well known Asian American.
Over 40% of the responders could not name even one.
Of those who could the two most popular answers were Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.
Kamala Harris is Asian-American.
Not 100% sure I would worry too much about this, what's the percentage of responders to a survey who would not be able to name all 50 states? How many people cannot look at a map of the US and name each state or if given the names of the states correctly place them on the map? We have way too many people in this country who are more interested in watching TV than using their brain.
What's even more interesting is that we have a Media Expert COMEDIAN telling us what is wrong
If you google it there are a number of articles by Asians that express the exact same thing.
George Takei. How could anyone not think of him?
My first response would probably be Mazie Hirono , the US Senator from Hawaii who has become pretty prominent in the Senate in the past few years due to her presence on key committees that have been shown on television.
Of course Kamala Harris is also Asian American on her mother's side.
Asian Americans pretty much get shortchanged in national media attention though.
The best thing to come out of China..
A vast majority of the Asian-Americans I know are positive minded and productive people who are successful in many fields, who don't obsess about isolated racial incidents...or engage in endless protests, or get into scuffles with the police
Do you actually know any AAPI people? Since everything from the AAPI community says your statement is BS.
I know and associate with several. That has been my personal experience.Yours may differ...particularly if one is attempting to create an alternate reality, and further divide people along racial lines
...and they're all basically white too, huh greg? /s
No alternate reality, that seems to be your forte.
Whatever you do don't read links or investigate anything that may differ from your slanted POV
I grew up with the son of Filipino immigrants. He remains one of my closest friends to this day. I share more in common with him than some of my cousins.
But I'm told that's impossible. All white people collude to oppress colored people, so it's impossible that a white man and Asian could share interests, outlooks etc..
To me it is Daniel Inyoue, Medal of Honor recipient and a member of the famed ''Go For Broke'' RCT the 442nd RCT.
One of the longest-serving senators and a fighter for civil rights his whole life.
I had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner with Senator Inyoue a number of times.
I agree about Daniel Inyoue. The story of his combat service in Italy is harrowingly told in Ken Burns' documentary series The War.
I would take the question to mean current Asian Americans, although clearly not too many people could answer it that way.
Andrew Yang, Ted Lieu, George Takei, and Madori (Japanese concert violinist) one of the best ever.
Geez, I forgot my own senator
Tammy Duckworth
Who is she?
Duckworth, a 51-year-old Democrat, is the junior senator from Illinois, having been elected in 2016 after serving two terms in the House of Representatives.
Why is she influential?
Born in Thailand to a Thai mother and an American father, Duckworth moved to Hawaii at 16 and joined the Army ROTC in 1990. She is a veteran of the Iraq War, where injuries sustained after a rocket-propelled grenade struck her helicopter made her a double amputee — the first ever to serve in the Senate. Duckworth also became the first sitting senator to give birth in 2018.
Don't forget John Cho.
You're right, John Cho the actor.
My very old memory is finally kicking in. Add Chow Yun-Fat, Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Lisa Ling.
How about Pat Morita and James Hong?
Mr. Miyagi, well done. Hong has been around forever, he was in Chinatown and Blade Runner.
. White have conspired to make Asian Americans the ethnic group with the highest income in America. So racist!
It's also a narrative that fits a much larger pattern in which White America has actively pitted Asian Americans against other communities."
This is Henry Ford's anti-jewish propaganda updated for the 21st century. It's insane to see how mainstream racist conspiracy nonsense is on the left these days.
m towards Asian Americans, revealing that suicide is the leading cause of death among young Asian American adults.
Believers in CRT are like stone age people but instead of blaming everything that's goes wrong on the moon, they blame it on racism. Every bad thing in the world is caused by racism. Did bad on a test? It's racist!
People who fall for such tripe really need their heads examined.
Much like Native Americans, although they are a considerably larger US population, Asian Americans are virtually invisible in national media and entertainment. So much so that when an Asian American, Jeremy Lin, became an NBA star a few years ago it became a huge sports story just because he was Asian American.
In and of itself, that fact has an odor of racism about it.
Right. No sports fans are talking about what a marvel Shohei Ohtani is.
Oh you found one. Good job.
Yeah, probably the biggest story in America's pastime
But by all means, let's force them Asians to embarrass themselves like Kardashians so they can get media spotlight. Media attention tends to focus on broken people who embarrass themselves for our amusement. You think it's a bad thing Asians aren't represented enough in that group?
lol.