By Danielle Chung

A few weeks ago, an uproar pervaded the Asian American community when Fox News decided it was appropriate to humiliate minorities in Chinatown through stereotyping.

Unfortunately, like too many issues that occur in the U.S., backlash and outright frustration was completely brushed aside in a matter of days.

Thankfully, this blatant racism surfaced once more when Michael Luo, a deputy editor at the New York Times, spoke out about his encounter with a well-dressed woman who yelled at him to “go back to China.”

Every racist encounter, story and illumination of our struggles demonstrates the intrinsic racism that runs in America. In this day and age, there is no excuse for perpetuating minority stereotypes. It makes minorities feel as if they do not belong and as if embracing their heritage is abnormal and unwanted.

As an Asian American, witnessing racism makes me irritable. I receive my fair share of incessant stereotypes and prejudiced remarks despite the fact that I am a naturalized citizen. I am utterly disgusted by the way my parents are treated at times, just because of their imperfect grammar or because of their slight hint of an accent when they speak English. When my mother loses power in her voice while speaking to a white, male police officer — this is when it hurts the most.

I can also understand the white community’s perspective on perpetuating racial stereotypes, but only because I was raised in one. I am friends with my white schoolmates and I know what they have seen on television and what they have learned from their parents. When they make fun of certain stereotypes, they think they are only making a joke. Some of their mockery has origins in fact. According to figures released by the College Board in 2015, Asian Americans perform better on the SATs, and the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) revealed that they also have higher GPAs. And, of course, Asian Americans are notorious for being internalized workaholics, which model minority.

Regardless, my ability to understand both sides does not justify the strong presence of racial discrimination in everyday life. Like never before, I am outraged by the cries for help from the marginalized people of America.

Fitting minorities into certain molds is archaic. Hosting an anti-Asian news segment in Chinatown on national television, interviewing the elderly passersby who speak little to no English and attempting to make it humorous by adding irrelevant movie scenes to further ridicule them, is brazen and shameful. Thanks to Fox News and an oblivious handful of the white community, stereotypes are, and will continue to be, reinforced.

Asian Americans should feel like they belong, and not be afraid to embrace their yellowness as the norm. If we act against prejudice, we ultimately become the angry minority. If we do not, we are accomplices of the vile crime that prevent us from feeling comfortable in our own skin. The latter seems like predominant action, but brushing things under the rug can only last so long. And increasingly, such racial encounters are just fleeting clamors and empty headlines on the news.

Racism is largely regarded as inappropriate and obtuse. As if struggling to filter out inaccurate, hurtful stereotypes was not already harmful, Jesse Watters, the Fox News reporter, humiliated all Asian Americans on the news.

He made the impression that we had no opinion on Donald Trump, were clueless about the current state of political affairs in the U.S. and unable to form personal thoughts. What strikes me, even more so, is the fact that Fox News fully supported this segment post-air, refusing to admit the segment was prejudicial, inaccurate and disturbing, to say the least.

I feel for the marginalized. We should not feel humiliated or ashamed of our identities when we have nothing to hide — as if being a person of color or indulging in one’s ethnic and cultural roots is a wrongdoing for which we should be berated, because this is 2016, and we have a right to belong.