On Oct. 3, 2016, Fox News uploaded a video titled “Watters’ World: Chinatown Edition” to its YouTube page. The video, in its description, mentioned that the show’s host Jesse Watters “asks the folks about election 2016 and Chinese-U.S. relations.” The video gained immediate notoriety for perpetuating stereotypes of Asian Americans and faced withering criticism from a variety of sources, including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Washington Post and the New Yorker. Despite Watters’ “apology,” the show’s host, conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly defended the segment, instead blaming “far-left websites, far-left precincts” and calling it an “attack on Fox News.” Though O’Reilly may not find the segment offensive, there is no doubt the subjects of the video, namely Asian Americans, have been unnecessarily attacked and mocked.
The Asian American Journalists Association, or AAJA, lambasted Watters for his comments, noting “he mixed in stereotypes of various Asian groups, conflating Koreans with Chinese and Japanese communities…and interviewed Asian Americans whose primary language isn’t English in order to mock them.” These claims are not without substance. In the segment, Watters implied that a street vendor had stolen his wares, asking “I like these watches — are they hot?” Roughly a minute and thirty seconds into the clip, Watters quipped to a Clinton supporter that “China can keep ripping us off.” Furthermore, in the segment, an elderly woman who did not respond to Watters’ questions was suddenly cut to a movie clip in which someone screams, “Speak, speak! Why don’t you speak?!” In the conclusion of the segment, Watters marveled that “They’re such a polite people… they just sit there and say nothing.” These statements are not “gentle fun,” in the words of O’Reilly — they are patently offensive. The AAJA notes, “Fox missed a real opportunity to investigate the Asian American vote, a topic not often covered in mainstream news.”
The blatant stereotyping in this Watters’ World segment is not new. Perhaps most prominently, Donald Trump has demonstrated a seemingly irrepressible hatred of Asians (most obviously the Chinese), blaming them for creating the “myth of climate change” and faking an Asian accent during a campaign rally in Iowa. Americans have, historically, been depicted by some as a “model minority,” described by John Freedman as “examples of upward mobility allegedly achieved through thrift, family cohesion, and educational achievement.” Though some may view this as a positive stereotype, a case study by Guofang Li of the State University of New York found otherwise. Li argued, “these images are false representations of many Asian students and have posed a threat to their educational advancement.” Furthermore, Li found that “The stereotypes have enhanced mainstream school’s ‘blaming the victims’ approach toward underachieving Asian students; and have heightened Asian parents’ ‘education fever.’” Of course, the Watters’ World segment did not help in easing anti-Asian sentiment in the United States; as noted by Professor Renee Tajima-Pena of the University of California, “We are either perpetual foreigners or we are the favored model minority. We are a threat or we are docile.”
The Watters’ World segment, in its infinite wisdom, chose to portray 5.8 percent of the United States population as “perpetual foreigners” and “the favored model minority.” Jesse Watters claimed, “As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all Watters World segments are.” I, personally, fail to see the humor in being implicated as docile, as a thief and as unknowledgeable about current events — and subsequently being mocked for those false beliefs.
William Wong is a Viewpoint writer.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Pedestrian safety is an institutional imperative
By Editorial Board | 12 hours agoAmid a national crisis of pedestrian safety, Charlottesville and the University are also struggling to properly maintain pedestrian safety.
YOUNIS: The danger of dehumanizing language
By Ayat Younis | 2 days agoThe administration’s failure to condemn blatant discrimination exacerbates an impossible situation, fostering an atmosphere that misinterprets pro-Palestinian sentiments as support of terrorism.
BRUNMAN: U.Va. administration, protect your Jewish students
By Wylie Brunman | 3 days agoWhen antisemitism is increasingly prevalent on Grounds and when Jewish students feel unsafe and unprotected, it is clear that the University must take active action to safeguard Jewish students.
