Fox News aired an anti-Asian Watters’ World, and we’re not laughing
The segment is not ‘gentle fun’
From the moment I entered NYU I wanted to be a journalist, and I still aspire to be a journalist because of such talents like Dan Eldon, and also because there aren’t enough Asian American women who’ve made it in this field. But then there’s Jesse Watters, the doofus who is somehow considered part of the journalism world, and I have to think again.
Jesse Watters is the host of “Watters’ World” and a correspondent for Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor.” On October 3rd “Watters’ World” broke one of the biggest rules of journalism, “minimizing harm” for the so called goal of exploring the Asian American vote. The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) responded to Jesse Watters, demanding an apology,
“Jesse Watters, O’Reilly Factor Correspondent and Host of Watters’ World, committed a litany of offenses, from asking Asian American women, ‘Do I bow to say hello?’ to asking an Asian American man if he knew karate. He mixed in stereotypes of various Asian groups, conflating Koreans with Chinese and Japanese communities. The segment used clips of martial arts movies and Asian Americans whose primary language isn’t English to mock them.”
https://twitter.com/jessebwatters/status/783778709182550016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfweninterviewed
Jesse Watters essentially responded with a “sorry you were offended – guess you’re too sensitive.” He certainly is an amazing political humorist. I mean being funny and political involves bullying people who aren’t like you, right? Being funny and political means fitting an excessive number of racist stereotypes in a matter of 5 minutes, right? I guess it’s impressive that someone can be so racist in such a short amount of time. Too bad we’re not laughing.
It’s 2016 and Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing racial minorities in America. Yet we still cannot get the basic respect we deserve. Why the hell are we being paraded around on TV by fools like Jesse Watters for the purpose of being laughed at by American society? This segment was not “gentle fun” as Bill O’Reilly said. This segment increased the harmful humiliation and objectification of the Asian American community that unfortunately still exists.
Right after one of the most impactful wins in Emmy history for Asian Americans, you would think American society would start seeing Asian Americans as people. Nope, we’re still a joke to America.
Fox News has a significant amount of followers and if it continues with its disgustingly negative coverage of communities of color such as the Asian American community, things will not change for the better. Fox News lost an opportunity to truly investigate the opinions of the Asian American community on the election. We are growing and our representation in government and media is growing. It’s time we’re taken seriously.
There currently is a petition out to cancel “Watters’ World,” demand an apology, and demand change from Fox News.