Last post!

The final section we read of Larson’s book deals with the final section on media coverage of Hispanic politicians and Asian American politicians. Similar to Native American politicians, there is little research on the coverage of Hispanic politicians, but there seems to be a bit more information on Asian American politicians (despite the small number of Asian American politicians in American federal politics).

Much of the research on the Hispanic population and politics focuses on how White politicians have tried to market themselves to the Hispanic population. This sort of mentality in the research is probably indicative of the agency of White people over other people of color. It is sad, but not surprising to think that so much research and politics is actually about manipulating the Hispanic population rather than looking at how, like was more the case in African American politicians, the minority people shaped their own politics. This is probably indicative of stereotypes about Latinos.

The lack of federal (because there are hundreds of local) Asian American politicians seems to be attributed to this being minor minority with a lack of connections to other ethnic minority groups. It is positive that they are not excluded from the media though there is still a prevalence of stereotypes and a focus on ethnicity and race.

Overall, the last chapter does not assert very astonishing conclusions: media helps uphold existing hegemonies, minorities are treated fairly equally poorly, and the third was pretty much the same. Really, the conclusions saying 1. there is less difference and 2. there is more similarity seem obviously related, but maybe the stress is clouding my mind. So have things gotten better? Larson asked. Yes and no. Woah. But really, overall, that is the focus of the book. Sure things have progressed towards equality, but there is a way to go and not enough people recognize this.