Microaggressions Against Asian-Americans in Hollywood ... and Law Schools

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Asian American Law Journal

Journal Abbreviation

Asian-Am. L.J.

Abstract

Hollywood movies and television shows have a long history of offensive portrayals of Asian-Americans and Asians-what we now call microaggressions. In the 21st century, a new form of microaggression has emerged: taking Asian-American or Asian stories and erasing the Asian presence in favor of (usually) white characters, ostensibly on the grounds that Asian actors are not bankable. For example, the 2022 action thriller Bullet Train took a Japanese novel about Japanese professional killers on a shinkansen (bullet train) and kept the Tokyo setting, but cast white, Black, and Latino actors in most of the roles-a diverse group, but one that is not going to blend into the Japanese crowd. Intended or not, the lesson that Asian-Americans might draw is that our stories are not worth telling unless they involve people other than Asians.

Unfortunately, analogous examples can be found in the legal academy and law schools. I present three examples: (1) the famous Justice Harlan dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, which is excerpted in all constitutional law casebooks, but fewer than half of whom include a virulently anti-Chinese passage; (2) the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, which is a prime example of race-based hate crime and the need for stronger criminal laws but which figures rarely in legal scholarship referencing hate crimes compared to other prominent hate crime murders; and (3) a trio of cases ostensibly about immigration law, but quite salient to illustrate how the Supreme Court’s reasoning can be mendacious and how the underpinning of an important separation of powers doctrine was built on anti-Chinese bigotry and racism, which are also rarely covered in constitutional law casebooks.

These stories are all about Asian-Americans because, as an Asian-American, I was aware of (most of) them. This, in fact, highlights the importance of law faculty diversity, because there are undoubtedly similar stories of erasure of other people of color, and a more diverse academy will be likely bring out other such stories.

First Page

1

Last Page

54

Publication Date

2026

Link to Full Text
Request Web Accessible Version

Share

COinS