The stereotype of all Asians being smart is very prevalent in all forms of pop culture today. While the label of all of them being intellectually supreme over their other racial counterparts is very extreme, it is true that many Asian Americans are very intellectually advanced, as 49% of all Asian Americans have a bachelor’s degree while only 31% of Caucasians, 18% of African Americans, and 13% of Latinos have bachelor’s degrees.1 Nonetheless, these 2 book covers from the Shelly Cashman Series: Microsoft Office 2010 and 2013 reinforce this stereotype. Both of these covers show the typical stereotype: an Asian American with glasses working at a computer. Another aspect of these covers is the level of difficulty of the books. Both of the books
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Similar to the intellectual stereotype, this stereotype also has evidence behind it. For example, 91% of all Asian Americans own a smartphone, compared to 66% of Caucasians, 62% of African Americans, and 65% of Latinos who own a smartphone.2 While this statistic may seem appalling at first sight, it helps explain the vast portrayal of Asians in advertisements as technologically smart. One example of this is the Verizon “Belt of Technology Video commercial. Pictured to the right, it features a Caucasian teenager with a “belt” of different gadgets (GPS, video camera, game pad, etc.). The Asian store employee looks unimpressed and instead hands the teenager a cellphone that has all of the capabilities of his “belt” into one device. The teenager looks stunned as he realizes that the store employee has outsmarted him. This advertisement employs all of the stereotypes discussed as the Asian is considered technologically smarter than the Caucasian. This advert essentially gives the viewer the idea that if an Asian says anything related to technology, then it is true. While this may not seem like it is a big deal, to many Asians it is. Advertisements like these limit the opportunities that many Asians see themselves having, as they are constantly being shown this role that they should fit into. The fact that “Asians make up 6 percent of the U.S. population, but they're still disproportionately cast as the guy who can fix your computer, and less likely to appear as a character who's not into science” (Hartmann, 2011) is
Similar to the intellectual stereotype, this stereotype also has evidence behind it. For example, 91% of all Asian Americans own a smartphone, compared to 66% of Caucasians, 62% of African Americans, and 65% of Latinos who own a smartphone.2 While this statistic may seem appalling at first sight, it helps explain the vast portrayal of Asians in advertisements as technologically smart. One example of this is the Verizon “Belt of Technology Video commercial. Pictured to the right, it features a Caucasian teenager with a “belt” of different gadgets (GPS, video camera, game pad, etc.). The Asian store employee looks unimpressed and instead hands the teenager a cellphone that has all of the capabilities of his “belt” into one device. The teenager looks stunned as he realizes that the store employee has outsmarted him. This advertisement employs all of the stereotypes discussed as the Asian is considered technologically smarter than the Caucasian. This advert essentially gives the viewer the idea that if an Asian says anything related to technology, then it is true. While this may not seem like it is a big deal, to many Asians it is. Advertisements like these limit the opportunities that many Asians see themselves having, as they are constantly being shown this role that they should fit into. The fact that “Asians make up 6 percent of the U.S. population, but they're still disproportionately cast as the guy who can fix your computer, and less likely to appear as a character who's not into science” (Hartmann, 2011) is