Awkwafina on SNL

This past week, Asian American actress Awkwafina, hosted Saturday Night Live. She is the second Asian American woman to host the show in 44 seasons. SNL has been criticized for lacking diversity and playing off of stereotypes for comedy sketches. The fact that there have only ever been 2 Asian American women to host SNL in 44 seasons proves this point.

This connects to what we have discussed in class about how lack of representation can be harmful to a person's self image and their belief in their abilities. The media uses symbolic annihilation to silence the voices of minority groups. This means that when a group is given little or no representation in the media, it is assumed that this group no longer exists, this takes away their power in society. People begin to believe that minority groups are not as prominent or powerful due to their lack of representation. Asian Americans are famously known for being misrepresented by stereotypes in the media or not represented at all. It is important for people to see images of themselves in the media because it helps them believe that they can be successful, this is called self-efficacy. Awkwafina talked about how seeing the first Asian American woman, Lucy Liu, host SNL in 2000, it gave her confidence and it was an important point in her life that helped her believe she could have a Hollywood career.