Reversed! UC Ban on Affirmative Action (in Bay Area News) China Charges Detained Scholar with Spying for Taiwan (in National News) Hot'n'Sour Dish: Bridget Jones' racist diary (in A&E) Emil Amok: Emil's International Incident, Part II (in Opinion)

Where We Are

Everyday we see that there are too few Asian Americans in mainstream media. We know that by watching TV, listening to the radio and reading the newspaper. Sometimes the effects are subtle, and we are left thinking that API sources, the experts as well as the everyday guys, are simply non-existent. Other times, however, the lack of an Asian American sensibility hits us in the face.

Take The View, for example. The other day, Star Jones was describing a trip to a spa she took with colleague Meredith Vieira. Viera’s facial treatment, she said, stretched her face out too much and caused her eyes to get slanted. “Kind of like yours, Lisa,” she chuckled. That’s Lisa, as in Lisa Ling.

I was similarly shocked when I read about the recent American Society of Newspaper Editors’ convention, during which the comedy troupe Capital Steps imitated a Chinese official, complete with thick glasses, a black wig and, I imagine, bucked teeth.

Maybe 30 years ago, something like that was good for a cheap laugh. But today? When we have two APIs in the presidential cabinet, not to mention the fastest growing population?

The subtle and overt racism in media makes AsianWeek’s work all the more pressing. In this issue, we look into the decline of minority journalists in mainstream dailies. One of the main setbacks for many reporters of color is the lack of support from upper management. Perhaps, few can imagine moving up the ranks in a profession in which 90.9 percent of the supervisors are white and only 1.6 percent Asian American.

U.C. Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism is doing their part to try and make the numbers more representative of the population. Admissions officers search for students from schools with large minority enrollments. And they value applicants with diverse backgrounds.

Only when those students and others become leaders and decision makers in TV, radio and newsapers, will slant-eyed, bucked-teeth jokes go away.