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Showing posts from September, 2021

The 1992 Los Angeles Riots

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In March of 1991, Rodney King was being pursued by LAPD in a high-speed chase. Eventually he was stopped by police, but when he was detained, the police started beating him with their batons. Police brutality is not something new and was definitely not new at the time either. However, Rodney's case was different because the encounter was recorded, and that recording was broadcasted across the United States and even in other countries. Many people were horrified by the actions they were seeing from these police officers, especially because people believed that police were supposed to work for the people, not against them as this situation showed. Four officers were put on trial for their use of force against King However, in 1992, a jury found all four officers not guilty despite the video evidence of the altercation. This acquittal was what ultimately sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Three hours after the acquittal was announced, violence broke out throughout South Central Los A

How the Smart Asian Stereotype in "Manifest" Can Be Eliminated

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In my previous post, I discussed how Manifest 's Saanvi Bahl embodies the smart Asian stereotype.  Manifest  was recently picked up by Netflix to release a final season. With a new production team, there are opportunities for the stereotypes in the show to be removed, including Saanvi's characterization. Saanvi contributes a lot to the plot of show. However, her contributions all stem from her being a doctor while Ben Stone’s, a white character, contributions are seen as more crucial yet do not stem from his field of work and are more just analyses of his visions. The network should give Saanvi more opportunities in which she can contribute in more ways than just scientific discoveries and in which she can truly express who she is as a person rather than just a doctor. For instance, it is implied in the show that Saanvi is bisexual, if not lesbian, so the production team could zoom in on that part of her life a bit more in order to add depth to her character and add LGBTQ+ repr

Smart Asian Stereotype in NBC's "Manifest"

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  In the show "Manifest," there are a couple of characters that embody “positive” stereotypes. One of them is Saanvi Bahl, an Indian-American whose entire character is centered around the fact that she is a doctor. Her medical and scientific work contributes significantly to the plot of the show. However, she has no backstory, and whenever she has screen time, she is usually in a lab or doing something related to her research and medicine. Her character is focused around the studious South Asian stereotype as she dedicates all of her on-screen time to her medical research and finding a “cure” to the unusual experiences she and her fellow passengers are having. She even goes as far as testing her research on herself, which lands her in the hospital, almost killing her, which also feeds into the self-sacrificing stereotype. She was prepared to die in order to find a "cure" to the voices and visions the passengers were receiving. The article titled “Why the ‘Smart Asia

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