How the media sees me example paper

Media plays a tremendous part in my life on a day to day basis. Media has been with me no matter where I am in the world. Whether it be sports, television's program, music, video games or even films, media has changed tremendously within my life. However media remains a constant facet of my life. I identify myself as a North American with an Indian-Chinese heritage. The reason I say North American is because I have spent a tremendous amount of my life living in the United States and Canada.I feel both cultures have shaped me tremendously. Whether it was living in Canada where my love of sports was developed; or it was living in California where I learnt about consumerism; North America has helped shape me and contributed to my ongoing development.

From ages 2-6, almost immediately after I was born in Ottawa Ontario, my family moved to Portland, Oregon. I went to A Child’s Way Kindergarten in Portland, Oregon where I learned some incredible lessons that still hold true in my life today. One of the most important lessons I learned was the value of assimilation. While at that I didn’t know what assimilation was or meant, I did realize that all the other boys in my class had Pokemon cards. So, after many discussions with my parents, they started buying me Pokemon cards and sure enough even though I was the only minority in my class I got along well with all the other boys. This taught me at a very young age that integrating myself into what was popular culturally was important. However this was never more true than with sports. My friend Jordan’s dad worked for Nike and encouraged my dad to get me into sports. So my dad got me a hockey net and a basketball hoop. From there my affection in basketball grew and peaked when I learned about Michael Jordan and the 1996 Chicago Bulls. When my family moved from Portland back to Canada, sports and Pokemon were the only things that came with me.

Living in Canada was also important in my development of understanding political policy but also in a grasp of economics. Canada’s entire population is smaller than in the state of California and thus praise along with scrutiny are more concentrated in the areas Canadian are most passionate about. I discovered the first year I lived in Canada that I could no longer play basketball during the entire year due to snow. This shifted me into caring far more about hockey as it was the easiest way to make friends. This gave me friends not only quickly but also instilled a belief within me that no matter where I go I should take an interest in the national sport. While I kept my passion for basketball, I found that the long winters led me to developing new hobbies to fill the void of playing basketball. This is where I found a deep love for music and video games. My music in my early youth was largely alternative music such as Blink 182, Green Day and Sum 41. I was not allowed to listen to rap music as were almost all of my friends. My parents upon reflection were very conservative culturally and often when I would try to have new experiences like listening to hip-hop or rap I would quickly be admonished by my parents. However I discovered that since my dad worked in technology video games were a new hobby my friends and I were allowed. So video games became the thing my friends and I would do besides hockey during long cold winters. However upon reflection the most interesting thing about living in Canada  was that my race was never something I thought about until I moved to California.

When I first moved to California it was difficult. I was immensely sad having left Canada and my friends in addition I missed the things I took for granted like my favorite chocolate bars and how at the time I could buy hockey cards very easily. However living in California has shaped my image, understanding of race and ambition. I went from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; to Los Gatos, California where economic circumstances were dramatically different. My first day of middle school I remember seeing kids with cell phones and getting dropped off in cars that I would rarely, if ever, see in Canada. I was the only kid who didn’t have a cell phone and had no idea what “texting” was. I learned during this process that I ultimately needed to embrace change even if I did not know anything about the subject. “There is almost always something good about everything” manifested into my outlook, which I attribute greatly to helping me to be open and accepting to almost everything. What is more interesting is this also affected my view on race. I realized that race wasn’t something I thought about due to always living in area with a great amount of diversity. I also feel I have never faced any harsh or cruel racism from another individual. Rather I often feel people are just ignorant and if they actually became familiar with the person they would often find they have something in common.

In the media I only see the portrayal of the Indian side of my heritage with some concern. I see tremendous character casting overlap with Indian and Middle Eastern people in casting characters. The Big Bang Theory and Silicon Valley both revolve around characters with high levels of education in the maths and sciences. Although a positive stereotype in some sense, the issue is that by only portraying Indians/Middle Eastern people as math and science focused, it encourages the stereotype that all Indian children are math and science oriented. People have predisposition to believing ethnicities are “wired’ a certain way which puts those children who do not fit that stereotype at a disadvantage. The result will be that those children may not get as much help in sports or school. Furthermore in both programs, the characters are awkward and have little to no ability in various social realms. In the case of The Big Bang Theory, the Indian character Raj Koothrappali has a whole episode entitled “The Grasshopper Experiment” centered around the premise he cannot talk to women unless drinking . Not only does this portray Indian and Middle Eastern people as socially inept but it also suggests that the character wouldn’t be socially capable if sober.

In the case of Silicon Valley the show has a middle eastern character name Dinesh Chugtai who serves as the foil to another character Bertram Gilfoyle. In Dinesh’s case he much like Raj Koothrappali, is found to be inept particularly socially. A large portion of the subplot of Silicon Valley is that Dinesh regularly is on the receiving end of Gilfoyle's pranks. Although Danesh is Middle Eastern I see him as being a character who is typecast in the same demographic I would be if I was to be cast into a program. The problem is similar in handicapping a minority character who has social issues. Danesh has time to develop as a character due to Silicon Valley being a far younger show then the Big Bang Theory. Although the overall trend is disturbing there is progress being made in other facets of Hollywood’s presentation of Indian and Middle Eastern characters.

The fictional media character I am most compared to is Don Draper from Mad Me. The non-fictional character who most people claim I am like is Aziz Ansari. While Aziz Ansari is undeniably talented and charismatic; I find it mentally lazy to compare someone who is talented to another person of the same aesthetic based on apparent ethnicity. While I appreciate the premise that I am funny and speak clear cogent English, I find myself to have little in common with Aziz Ansari from a comedic standpoint. I find Aziz is a guy who has comedy largely centered around personal matters and the observations he takes from those personal matters. I view my own comedy as being much more like Bill Maher where I walk through flawed logic and find myself laughing along the way. Sure both require observation however due to him being a short caucasian male and I a lanky brown Indian-Chinese fellow, I never hear the comparison from even the most racially aware and comedically educated individuals. In the case of Don Draper, my friends joke that I am him purely due to the fact I am an advertising major who likes good whiskey. Interestingly only my closest friends do this. I find that due to familiarization and time that race becomes a non factor in some of my life experiences and my friends see me as a human being rather than a human with a racial connotation. I think over time and familiarity all groups will have the same benefit so long as society continues to become more educated and conscious.

Looking at myself in media I found that while not perfect, time will only make things better. However, I feel society has enabled me enough to be to do this and though I realize other minorities have not experienced this same luxury I do. Ultimately the experience of writing this paper was humbling and made me realize how fortunate I am to be who I am and who I am gonna be going forward.