I noticed this, but even without race and gender the characters are profoundly stereotyped—intentionally exaggerated for effect.
At least, I hope there aren't real-life Certified Red Line Experts running around, nor designers hoping to draw red lines in green ink…
Taken too literally, this sketch could be offensive to all of women, portrayed as clueless; male executives, portrayed as willfully ignorant and over-demanding; Asians, portrayed as obviously engineers; non-Asians, portrayed as obviously not engineers; engineers, portrayed as incapable of working backwards from impossible requirements to find a solution that actually works; and probably other groups I've forgotten.
Um, because the stereotype of an engineer is a male, Japan is often associated with engineering and having the engineer be the only one of visually different nationality emphasizes the divide between techinal and non technical. Yes, it is horrible typecasting like every character in that clip and that is the point.
I'm actually both Asian and male; the protagonist typecast in the skit if you will. The insensitivity and frank hostility exhibited by your remark alone shows how much more work we have to do in order to make the tech sector more hospitable and diverse.
If it's an asian male we'll get people like you noticing it's an asian male... if we make it a black women we'll get people noticing it's a black women.
It honestly doesn't matter. I've personally never seen anyone in IT of east asian descent anyway.
Comments
Why is the engineer Asian and male? While it's an amusing skit, it's horribly typecasting. How about a black woman for a change?
I noticed this, but even without race and gender the characters are profoundly stereotyped—intentionally exaggerated for effect.
At least, I hope there aren't real-life Certified Red Line Experts running around, nor designers hoping to draw red lines in green ink…
Taken too literally, this sketch could be offensive to all of women, portrayed as clueless; male executives, portrayed as willfully ignorant and over-demanding; Asians, portrayed as obviously engineers; non-Asians, portrayed as obviously not engineers; engineers, portrayed as incapable of working backwards from impossible requirements to find a solution that actually works; and probably other groups I've forgotten.
Um, because the stereotype of an engineer is a male, Japan is often associated with engineering and having the engineer be the only one of visually different nationality emphasizes the divide between techinal and non technical. Yes, it is horrible typecasting like every character in that clip and that is the point.
Feel free to make your own skit using whatever typecasts you need to make yourself feel better.
I'm actually both Asian and male; the protagonist typecast in the skit if you will. The insensitivity and frank hostility exhibited by your remark alone shows how much more work we have to do in order to make the tech sector more hospitable and diverse.
If it's an asian male we'll get people like you noticing it's an asian male... if we make it a black women we'll get people noticing it's a black women.
It honestly doesn't matter. I've personally never seen anyone in IT of east asian descent anyway.
Get over yourself.