05.31.07
Weekly Poll: Why did NPR use this headline and this type of phrasing for this article?
On Tuesday, May 29 2007, NPR reported a story entitled:
Chinatown Resists Gentrification
From the article:
Shing Wah Yeung is a developer who’s worked on several residential projects in Chinatown. …Yeung brought 61 condos onto the market two years ago, selling at 400-thousand to 1.6 million dollars. More than 90 percent of the buyers, he says, were Chinese-American. So even when new apartments come online, the racial demographics of Chinatown don’t change.
- The lofts are selling for 1.6 million up to 5 million dollars for the penthouses.
- Gary Tai points to a six-story building, owned by the Chew Lun Family Association. There’s a large Chinese restaurant on the ground floor, and several small businesses above. Tai walks down Mott Street and points out several other buildings owned by the associations. They have 50 in all - about a quarter of the buildings in Chinatown’s historic core.
- I think there is going to be more of a higher-end retail because you have a lot of tourists, there’s a lot of traffic on Canal Street.
To some, this sounds like the story of young Asian American professionals who are actively investing in real estate in their community, Chinatown. However, to further drill in the headline “Chinatown Resists Gentrification,” the article uses phrases such as:
- “…one place that appears to be resisting the forces of gentrification.”
- “…Chinatown’s been resistant to gentrification.”
- “…these nonprofit groups own real estate, and they’re not likely to give it up.”
- “It doesn’t appear to have opened up, yet it occupies prime New York real estate.”
Why did NPR use this headline and this type of phrasing for this article?
- A) White Americans are beginning to move into Chinatown now, and that is the reason for the positive changes we see. The Asian Americans who have lived in Chinatown for more than 100 years have not improved the Chinatown as much as white Americans have. Therefore, Asian Americans living in Chinatown are considered a negative influence (resisting), whereas white Americans living in chinatown are considered a positive influence (gentrification).
- B) Main stream media likes perpetuating the idea that Asian Americans are perpetual foreigners who are unassimilable into mainstream culture. By repeating phrasing such as “resisting the forces of gentrification,” “resistant to gentrification,” and “not likely to give it up,” it ensures that this idea remains in the public’s psyche so that Asian Americans will continue to be looked upon as outsiders. Highlighting the fact that 90% of new condo purchases in Chinatown were made by Chinese Americans or the fact that positive changes are brought about by Asian Americans living in Chinatown today would cast Asian Americans in a positive light, which is something that mainstream media doesn’t want to do.
- C) Asian Americans raised in this country are repeatedly fed images, news, text, ads, TV shows, and movies which teach them to be ashamed of themselves or the accomplishments of the Asian American community at large. By attributing positive changes in the community to a (mostly non-participating) white American main stream as well as down-playing the positive changes in Chinatown brought about by Asian Americans, the mainstream media ensures that we remain ashamed of ourselves. In doing this, mainstream media accomplishes two objectives: praising the accomplishments of white Americans while simultaneously obscuring and de-centralizing Asian Americans.
- D) An influx of white Americans in any ethnic neighborhood (a process also called “gentrification”) is always a good thing. In the cases of neighborhoods which were predominantly African American or Latino American, an influx of white Americans has always been the definitive cause of positive economic change in that community. Therefore, the phrasing used by this article is completely appropriate in the case of New York City’s Chinatown. Chinatown needs white Americans to raise its economic profile.
- Some other reason. Click here to type a different answer
humpy said,
June 1, 2007 at 9:08 am
while NPR is generally a good news source that balances out the “faux news” landscape of soundbytes, for the most part “LIEberals” are just as capable of ethnocentricism and a smug sense of superiority complex as conservatives.
for the most part, when they’re thinking they’re self-enlightened they’re usually paternalistic in the sense of that they know what’s best for people of color rather than self-determination by PoC.
beluga said,
June 1, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I think this is interesting as Chinatown’s image may become transformed in the mind of America into an exclusive, upscale Chinese yuppy area instead of a “fishy ghetto.”
In fact, China as a whole is making that transition.