Both US and UK media constructs and uses distinct geographical identity as "race" to either "other" or dissolve in a single block as per political or ideological needs. Here BBC forgets or absorbs Jamaica also in Asia because its as convenient as hiding Pakistan in "South Asia".
https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/1351933654575017987
Rascality of media's language construction itself shows up in how they never ever use "British/French-American" or any of the western European as prefix to American, but "Irish/Italian/Hispanic/Asian" freely -implying the false narrative that somehow "west Europeans" are natives.
What is insidious in Harris's construction as "Asian-American" is that it is culturally too diverse to be meaningful as an identity, and ignoring Harris's own distance from the cultures of "Asia" and proximity to US -implying a "racial other" who needs an additional qualifier..
Insidious is the careful erasure of Harris's Jamaican ancestry -to pretend a homogeneous abstract "Asian" other -while still using a by-descent framework to call her "Asian". This shows that racial construction is driven by political needs within overarching agenda of "othering".
British/US media erases Harris's Jamaican ancestry because it wants to tug at electoral cockles of "Asian" hearts, just as it hides the religious/Pakistani roots of UK child-sex-groomer gangs imply including others under the label "South Asian", maybe to protect an asset.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
