Narrative Scarcity and the Asian-American Experience

The reason why we have narrative scarcity is because we have economic scarcity, and people don’t have equal access to modes of storytelling,” assembly speaker Viet Thanh Nguyen once said at an event with Maxine Hong Kingston. Caucasians have an immense amount of representation in society with movies, books and speakers. Blacks and Latinx are finding ground to speak out, and they have many influential people in the mix. Both females and males are able to speak up about offenses made against them for gender segregation and have made a difference in the world. With the lack of impactful actors, authors and artists speaking about their experiences, the Asian community has not been able to tell their stories. Narrative scarcity plays a role in our daily lives in ways we don’t even notice, and it affects our general perception of minorities. Viet Thanh Nguyen regularly speaks out about the lack of representation in the Asian community and how most people tend to believe the stereotypes and the accusations made against them. I consider this to be true, especially since I have experienced it personally. Coming from the deep South as an Asian-American female, where racism tends to be prevalent, I viewed behavior in which stereotypes were ruled out as true to other people and races but also to myself. I went to a school that was predominantly wealthy white students living in central Atlanta, and they didn’t encounter the Asian community very often. With the few Asian students that attended their school, the foreign students were singled out and targeted. And with no one to speak up on their behalf, what could they do but endure the humiliation and stay quiet in fear of being further attacked? Exeter is considered to be a diverse community, attracting people with different cultures from all around the world. Narrative scarcity isn’t particularly a problem at Exeter with the various inclusion groups regarding sexuality, religion, race and more. Minorities on campus are valued, although sometimes we witness favoritism towards those with wealth and higher status. Since we all hail from all around the world, our perception of minorities differs greatly. With some having been shielded from a world of inclusion and equality and others having grown up as a minority, the classroom environment can sometimes be tense when a controversial topic comes up. At Phillips Exeter Academy, we have various classes and clubs that touch on current day issues, and the atmosphere isn’t the same for all. Narrative scarcity is an issue that plays a major role in the real world in acting, social media, writers, artists and more. This lack of representation paints a picture that limits what we see for minorities. Although blacks and Latinx students are still in need of more representation, activism on campus has become more prevalent. Asian Americans are lacking in this department due to one of two reasons: either we lack the representatives to write, express, and speak out for the community, or the media and society refuses to accept our pleas and attempts for our voice to be heard—whether it be through films, novels, or art. When we don’t get the full story, narrative scarcity only allows us to view certain people through certain viewpoints, which results in some taking the information provided to them, whether it be true or false, and shaping these people into the stereotypes and accusations that have been claimed as true.