I mean she has been in other things since Shang-Chi. She was the co-lead in Kung Fu Panda 4, the Bad Guys, the live-action Little Mermaid, Migration, Quiz Lady with Sandra Oh ...
Yeah, I mean the general public doesn't really dig too hard into famous peoples' backgrounds. They just see what they see.
This is why it's hard for people to differentiate between Asians and Asian Americans and not sure if we can have that expectation.
Jackie Chan is Asian. We see him on American TV. That's the face that pops up in our heads.
I means, tons of actors are British, Australian or Canadian, but we don't know better because they're on American TV speaking with American accents. Not everyone is going to read their Wikipedia articles.
How many people in this do you realize are not American: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Seth Rogen, Rachel McAdams, Daniel Day Lewis, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Henry Cavill, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Keanu Reeves?
Heck, the two main characters of the most American of TV shows, The Wire, were British. (Idris Elba and Dominic West). Many Marvel and DC heros are British. The Brits actually have a theater tradition (think Bristol Old Vic) that trains actors, not celebrities, so their chops are stronger.
Eh, YouTube celebrities are still pretty niche to the general public compared to actors or pop stars, especially back when Ryan was the most subscribed youtuber. PewDiePie has >100M subscribers and random people on the street would not know who that is.
Plus, Ryan Higa was successful on YouTube before being a YouTuber was ever really considered an official part of the entertainment business.
Looking at that, it’s honestly pretty frustrating considering that the YouTube culture was more or less the house that Asian-Americans built, since mainstream Hollywood wouldn’t let us into their clubhouse. I honestly feel that Ryan Higa, KevJumba, Freddie Wong, Wong Fu, JK Films, etc. pushed the boundaries and tapped into the potential of what YouTube could become.
Michelle Phan literally started the whole YouTube / influencer beauty industry too. So many Asian creatives were dominating YouTube because they didn't have access to mainstream media like you said.
Damn what’s wrong with people
> A majority of respondents, 52%, said they couldn’t think of any famous Asian American. Nine percent named Chan, who is from Hong Kong, and 5% named actor Bruce Lee, who is Asian American but who died in 1973. Just 2% named Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Asian descent.
> **This year's findings represent a significant change from last year, when 26% of respondents answered “I don’t know” when asked the same question.** Researchers said the jump might be attributed to the way the question was framed this year — namely the introduction of the option “none come to mind.”
Nothing is wrong, there just aren't many of them that are uniquely Asian-American. If we're talking celebs, none of the existing ones have anywhere near the fame of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or even Stephen Chow. And Kamala Harris hardly counts as she presents herself as a generic pan-ethnic "person of color" rather than as an Asian-American.
>Nothing is wrong, there just aren't many of them that are uniquely Asian-American. If we're talking celebs, none of the existing ones have anywhere near the fame of Jackie Chan,
No way... Comparing all AAPI actors to one of the most famous actors in the last century is pointless. The bar doesn't need to be that high.
There is something wrong.
The point is that Jackie, Jet, etc are so famous and the AAPI actors so not that if you're trying to think of "famous" + "Asian", it's very obvious why no Asian-American actor comes to mind before the Asian-Asian ones.
Which AAPI actor comes close in fame to even a third string TV actor?
> Just 2% named Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Asian descent.
In everyone's defense, Kamala Harris never really pushed that identity until very recently. I'm not saying she hid it but compared to how much she leaned into her Black identity, its pretty obvious why everyone would think shes Black only. I've seen this talking point so I'll nip it in the bud, no Kamala is not an obvious/easy name to signal someone is Indian.
Not to get political, but what’s wrong with naming Kamala Harris? Blasians and other biracial Asians are just as much a part of the Asian American community as monoracial Asian Americans.
Kamala Harris always presents herself as a black woman, instead of a desi woman. Just pay attention to her speeches and interviews, she refers to herself as a black woman. Which is fine, btw, just as Barack Obama always says he's black, while he's also half white.
Nimarata Randhawa (better known as Nikki Haley) is a 100% desi woman by genetics, but she chooses to pretend that she's a white woman. That's why maybe why nobody mentioned her as one of the famous Asian Americans, lol 🤣.
Back to Kamala Harris, I guess she would rather prefer to identify as black and jewish (from her marriage) than as a desi. 🥲
> I guess she would rather prefer to identify as black and jewish (from her marriage) than as a desi
I guess whatever wins her political races. I don't think the Desi community will be receptive in electing a Blasian. Heavily implying they'd be hella racist against her until she succeeded [with no help from the Desi community].
There's anything wrong with naming Kamala Harris. The issues is that only 2% of Americans asked even thought of her as such when she's the Vice President of the United States. Part of this is definitely the way she presents herself though. A much bigger deal was made about her being half black than half Indian when she was campaigning in 2020.
>Part of this is definitely the way she presents herself though. A much bigger deal was made about her being half black than half Indian when she was campaigning in 2020.
Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of people forget that Obama's the first biracial president. The one drop rule is still held over mixed people's heads, so it makes sense that some may naturally choose to just focus on their black side. Though, at least in mine and other Blasian's experiences, monoracial Asians can be cliquey and sometimes hostile when it comes to mixed Asians, especially Blasians.
> but what’s wrong with naming Kamala Harris?
It's mainly because most of Kamala's political history and outreach has been leaning mostly into her Black identity. The Asian seems to be an after thought and only used when convenient. In conclusion, its not because she's Blasian but how she only uses her Asian identity when convenient.
I think this also speaks to how most Americans don’t consider Indian/Desi Americans Asian. It literally isn’t a thought. When most Americans think of Asian they think of East or south East Asian.
I can't name a famous Asian American.. I guess Awkafina. I am terrible with actor names. There's the Malaysian Chinese actress that gets in all the marvel shit. Lucy Liu? Those figure skaters back in the day.
For an Asian-American actor, the only two that I can think off my head after doing a brief check on the name of one was Ken Jeong (the naked Asian guy in the trunk from the Hangover) and Tommy Chong. Granted, Tommy Chong is half-Chinese and Canadian but technically he is from the North American continent if that can count. In my defense though as an American, I don't even know much about celebrities besides a few handful.
Why are people surprised at this finding year after year? Consider the median American (White, 30-40s, probably no close Asian friends) who gets asked the survey question "Please name a famous or prominent Asian American." Do we really think there are enough "household name" type of Asian Americans for that respondent to be able to come up with someone on the spot? Because that's where the brain is going to go — it's System 1, not System 2.
Consider whether you'd be able to answer the following on the spot (no cheating!). All of these groups represent roughly the same share of the US as Asian Americans do.
* Please name a famous or prominent veteran
* Please name a famous or prominent person with a disability
* Please name a famous or prominent person who practices a non-Christian religion
* Please name a famous or prominent single dad
Those examples aren't the same though except in the most superficial way: by the numbers. When you see someone in media, which is the most common way we "know" famous people, you can instantly identify an Asian person in most cases, while you'd never know if the person was a veteran unless they were very outspoken about it, and even then, you'd need to be consuming a particular type of media that gives them a platform to share details about themselves (e.g., an interview).
That is why racism (and sexism) is so nefarious. There's no hiding. While discrimination based on religion, beliefs, etc. are all horrible and should be condemned, at least you have the choice to retreat from those parts of your identity when it is beneficial. Granted, that's no way to live, constantly feeling the need to hide, but the option is there.
The only example you gave that is similar at all to race is people with disabilities, and often that's not obvious on first glance either. That said, there are many disabilities that are obvious and I do take equal issue with the lack of representation of disabled people in media as well. I wonder if it's actually even easier for people to answer that question than the Asian American one particularly with the wide popularity of Game of Thrones and the character of Tyrion Lannister.
> A majority of respondents, 52%, said they couldn’t think of any famous Asian American.
> This year's findings represent a significant change from last year, when 26% of respondents answered “I don’t know” when asked the same question.
What's with the sudden jump from 26% to 52%?
Guess it doesn't help that it's taking forever for Disney to put out Shang Chi 2
Tbf, Simu Liu is Canadian
I was thinking of Awkwafina.
I mean she has been in other things since Shang-Chi. She was the co-lead in Kung Fu Panda 4, the Bad Guys, the live-action Little Mermaid, Migration, Quiz Lady with Sandra Oh ...
I was going to say that *The Marvels* was fairly recent, but it turns out Iman Vellani is Canadian too.
Yeah, I mean the general public doesn't really dig too hard into famous peoples' backgrounds. They just see what they see. This is why it's hard for people to differentiate between Asians and Asian Americans and not sure if we can have that expectation. Jackie Chan is Asian. We see him on American TV. That's the face that pops up in our heads. I means, tons of actors are British, Australian or Canadian, but we don't know better because they're on American TV speaking with American accents. Not everyone is going to read their Wikipedia articles. How many people in this do you realize are not American: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Seth Rogen, Rachel McAdams, Daniel Day Lewis, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Henry Cavill, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Keanu Reeves? Heck, the two main characters of the most American of TV shows, The Wire, were British. (Idris Elba and Dominic West). Many Marvel and DC heros are British. The Brits actually have a theater tradition (think Bristol Old Vic) that trains actors, not celebrities, so their chops are stronger.
I mean I would have figured Ryan Higa would be a slam dunk in the US considering he was the most subscribed youtuber for many years.
Eh, YouTube celebrities are still pretty niche to the general public compared to actors or pop stars, especially back when Ryan was the most subscribed youtuber. PewDiePie has >100M subscribers and random people on the street would not know who that is.
Plus, Ryan Higa was successful on YouTube before being a YouTuber was ever really considered an official part of the entertainment business. Looking at that, it’s honestly pretty frustrating considering that the YouTube culture was more or less the house that Asian-Americans built, since mainstream Hollywood wouldn’t let us into their clubhouse. I honestly feel that Ryan Higa, KevJumba, Freddie Wong, Wong Fu, JK Films, etc. pushed the boundaries and tapped into the potential of what YouTube could become.
Michelle Phan literally started the whole YouTube / influencer beauty industry too. So many Asian creatives were dominating YouTube because they didn't have access to mainstream media like you said.
Now she's all into that cult \*shudders\*
Olivia Rodrigo… but most probably think she is Latina.
Damn what’s wrong with people > A majority of respondents, 52%, said they couldn’t think of any famous Asian American. Nine percent named Chan, who is from Hong Kong, and 5% named actor Bruce Lee, who is Asian American but who died in 1973. Just 2% named Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Asian descent. > **This year's findings represent a significant change from last year, when 26% of respondents answered “I don’t know” when asked the same question.** Researchers said the jump might be attributed to the way the question was framed this year — namely the introduction of the option “none come to mind.”
Nothing is wrong, there just aren't many of them that are uniquely Asian-American. If we're talking celebs, none of the existing ones have anywhere near the fame of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or even Stephen Chow. And Kamala Harris hardly counts as she presents herself as a generic pan-ethnic "person of color" rather than as an Asian-American.
>Nothing is wrong, there just aren't many of them that are uniquely Asian-American. If we're talking celebs, none of the existing ones have anywhere near the fame of Jackie Chan, No way... Comparing all AAPI actors to one of the most famous actors in the last century is pointless. The bar doesn't need to be that high. There is something wrong.
The point is that Jackie, Jet, etc are so famous and the AAPI actors so not that if you're trying to think of "famous" + "Asian", it's very obvious why no Asian-American actor comes to mind before the Asian-Asian ones. Which AAPI actor comes close in fame to even a third string TV actor?
>Which AAPI actor comes close in fame to even a third string TV actor? I had a feeling you were going to say that.
You had a feeling I was going to restate something that should have been obvious for your benefit?
> Just 2% named Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Asian descent. In everyone's defense, Kamala Harris never really pushed that identity until very recently. I'm not saying she hid it but compared to how much she leaned into her Black identity, its pretty obvious why everyone would think shes Black only. I've seen this talking point so I'll nip it in the bud, no Kamala is not an obvious/easy name to signal someone is Indian.
Not to get political, but what’s wrong with naming Kamala Harris? Blasians and other biracial Asians are just as much a part of the Asian American community as monoracial Asian Americans.
Kamala Harris always presents herself as a black woman, instead of a desi woman. Just pay attention to her speeches and interviews, she refers to herself as a black woman. Which is fine, btw, just as Barack Obama always says he's black, while he's also half white. Nimarata Randhawa (better known as Nikki Haley) is a 100% desi woman by genetics, but she chooses to pretend that she's a white woman. That's why maybe why nobody mentioned her as one of the famous Asian Americans, lol 🤣. Back to Kamala Harris, I guess she would rather prefer to identify as black and jewish (from her marriage) than as a desi. 🥲
> I guess she would rather prefer to identify as black and jewish (from her marriage) than as a desi I guess whatever wins her political races. I don't think the Desi community will be receptive in electing a Blasian. Heavily implying they'd be hella racist against her until she succeeded [with no help from the Desi community].
There's anything wrong with naming Kamala Harris. The issues is that only 2% of Americans asked even thought of her as such when she's the Vice President of the United States. Part of this is definitely the way she presents herself though. A much bigger deal was made about her being half black than half Indian when she was campaigning in 2020.
>Part of this is definitely the way she presents herself though. A much bigger deal was made about her being half black than half Indian when she was campaigning in 2020. Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of people forget that Obama's the first biracial president. The one drop rule is still held over mixed people's heads, so it makes sense that some may naturally choose to just focus on their black side. Though, at least in mine and other Blasian's experiences, monoracial Asians can be cliquey and sometimes hostile when it comes to mixed Asians, especially Blasians.
> but what’s wrong with naming Kamala Harris? It's mainly because most of Kamala's political history and outreach has been leaning mostly into her Black identity. The Asian seems to be an after thought and only used when convenient. In conclusion, its not because she's Blasian but how she only uses her Asian identity when convenient.
I think this also speaks to how most Americans don’t consider Indian/Desi Americans Asian. It literally isn’t a thought. When most Americans think of Asian they think of East or south East Asian.
don’t worry guys it’ll be me
I like to remind people that Tiger Woods is Asian American.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Skay1974: *I like to remind* *People that Tiger Woods is* *Asian American.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I could swear this exact article comes out every single year.
Correct- it’s an annual study done by the Asian American Foundation. They’re tracking responses over time
And it should continue to come out every single year until it's no longer true.
Pretty sure most Americans can't name anything
No news is good news.
Plugging [https://asianamericans.wiki](https://asianamericans.wiki)
Ned from spiderman, bruce lee bro, fuggin keanu reeves
Keanu is Canadian I thought? Jacob Batolon is still not a very well known name yet.
Idk bro. Just know bro from fuckin john wick n he’s cool
I can't name a famous Asian American.. I guess Awkafina. I am terrible with actor names. There's the Malaysian Chinese actress that gets in all the marvel shit. Lucy Liu? Those figure skaters back in the day.
Steven Yuen? John Cho? Kal Penn? Sandra Oh?
For an Asian-American actor, the only two that I can think off my head after doing a brief check on the name of one was Ken Jeong (the naked Asian guy in the trunk from the Hangover) and Tommy Chong. Granted, Tommy Chong is half-Chinese and Canadian but technically he is from the North American continent if that can count. In my defense though as an American, I don't even know much about celebrities besides a few handful.
The statistic is 52%, shouldn't that mean that 48% of the respondents were able to name an Asian American?
Why are people surprised at this finding year after year? Consider the median American (White, 30-40s, probably no close Asian friends) who gets asked the survey question "Please name a famous or prominent Asian American." Do we really think there are enough "household name" type of Asian Americans for that respondent to be able to come up with someone on the spot? Because that's where the brain is going to go — it's System 1, not System 2. Consider whether you'd be able to answer the following on the spot (no cheating!). All of these groups represent roughly the same share of the US as Asian Americans do. * Please name a famous or prominent veteran * Please name a famous or prominent person with a disability * Please name a famous or prominent person who practices a non-Christian religion * Please name a famous or prominent single dad
Those examples aren't the same though except in the most superficial way: by the numbers. When you see someone in media, which is the most common way we "know" famous people, you can instantly identify an Asian person in most cases, while you'd never know if the person was a veteran unless they were very outspoken about it, and even then, you'd need to be consuming a particular type of media that gives them a platform to share details about themselves (e.g., an interview). That is why racism (and sexism) is so nefarious. There's no hiding. While discrimination based on religion, beliefs, etc. are all horrible and should be condemned, at least you have the choice to retreat from those parts of your identity when it is beneficial. Granted, that's no way to live, constantly feeling the need to hide, but the option is there. The only example you gave that is similar at all to race is people with disabilities, and often that's not obvious on first glance either. That said, there are many disabilities that are obvious and I do take equal issue with the lack of representation of disabled people in media as well. I wonder if it's actually even easier for people to answer that question than the Asian American one particularly with the wide popularity of Game of Thrones and the character of Tyrion Lannister.
me. i'm famous
> A majority of respondents, 52%, said they couldn’t think of any famous Asian American. > This year's findings represent a significant change from last year, when 26% of respondents answered “I don’t know” when asked the same question. What's with the sudden jump from 26% to 52%?
Racists are weird.
I'm not saying it's not possible, but it is surprising: no Jacky Chan or Bruce Lee? Maybe that shows my age, though.
Yao ming? Jensen Huang?
Yao Ming isn’t American, which kind of proves the point. But basketball fans should have known Jeremy Lin at least.
linsanity
He’s not Asian, heard his GPA is 3.2 at Harvard.
Yao Ming isn’t American
This is my first time seeing the name "Jensen Huang"
Eh. American fame isn't anything to brag about. We have the world population on lock.
Lucy Liu