nwasianweekly.com
Feb. 23, 2008

CNN misinterprets Asian American voters

On Feb. 8, CNN aired a brief segment featuring interviews with Asian Americans, who were asked which presidential candidate nominee they planned to vote for. The segment was titled “Asian Americans to Vote for Hillary Clinton Across the Nation” and overwhelmingly showed Asians with accents naming Sen. Clinton as their choice for president.

The report concluded that Asian Americans supported Clinton primarily because they are “fearful of a black presidential candidate and/or fearful of change.”

Asian Americans were outraged by the generalities and stereotypes portrayed in the piece, and immediately began circulating a petition calling for CNN to recant the report and air another, more balanced, segment.

CNN complied and aired a follow-up segment Feb. 15, this time attributing much of the Asian Americans’ support for Clinton to the 80-20 Initiative’s call to boycott Obama, at least in California.

Asian American viewers were understandably furious at the portrayal of Asians as racist and resistant to change. Bloggers pointed out that CNN almost exclusively chose to interview Asians who did not speak English fluently, and even showed one youth who was clearly either so bewildered by the camera or so lacking in English skills that when the interviewer, Gary Tuchman, took his mumbling to mean “Lincoln,” the teenager nodded his assent.

Some Asian Americans have mentioned an even more dangerous consequence of the CNN spot. Kathleen To posted on the 80-20’s blog, “In many ways, this is a very serious matter. It could cause racial disharmony between the black community and ours.”

As February, Black History Month, draws to a close, this is an excellent point to consider. African Americans and Asian Americans have had a rocky history, and monitoring and mending the relations between the communities is essential.

Sound bites are not conducive to better relations. Showing an Asian woman say she will vote for “Clinton white lady” might be amusing for CNN, but it hardly begins any substantial conversation. Most likely she used the term “white lady” to indicate identification of Clinton, and not motivation for how she herself would vote. But in the context of the heavily edited CNN segment, would people even think of that? Wouldn’t people immediately be reminded of the bad blood between the African American and Asian American communities?

The truth is that many Asian Americans do support Clinton. Many also support Sen. Obama. Some support Sen. McCain. And yes, some, like racist people of all ethnicities, fear the possibility of a black president. But what most of us fear is the perception that this is the norm, and not the unfortunate exception.

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