While watching Asian Americans, I was experiencing a lot of emotions: anger, sadness, disgust. I was disheartened when I finally learned the true historical context of Chinese immigrants working on the transcontinental railroad and appalled by the stories of Japanese Americans while living in the internment camps. I could sympathize with Buddy Uno's personal turmoil with identity crisis. I come across the conflict between which identity I belong to: my Thai identity or American identity? This documentary and learning of Buddy Uno and his family's experience brought to light an interesting question: can someone who's accepted the path of assimilation ever truly belong to their original culture?
Some limitations of the documentary were that the producers left out an entire population of Asian Americans who did not completely choose the life of assimilation, the people that chose to continue performing and valuing traditional beliefs and cultures. The film mentions Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Indian, and Korean Americans, but completely disregards other groups under the Asian American umbrella. While the historical context of those groups are important to highlight, other groups are pushed into oblivion. A future consideration for Asian American documentaries such as Asian American should strive to be more inclusive towards groups and populations that haven't been given representation.
In Va Megn Thoj's article, there is a powerful discussion about Asian racism and the effect of labelling systemic racism as "supernatural". Some of my major takeaways from this article were that racism is erased by model minority and economic success, as well as the "supernatural-ness" of racism ties to the notion that racism can't truly be fought. Racism towards Asians and Asian Americans is harder to detect due to the "positivity" radiating from the model minority myth. If an Asian American conforms to the model minority framework, then they're being painted in a potentially positive light. Unfortunately, the myth of the model minority and economic success does not guarantee protection from racism and discrimination. In the never-made film discussed in the reading, the supernatural enemies turn out to be white hunters, signifying that "in the light of day", racism is made visible, but when darkness comes, that is when fear is provoked.
I found the "supernatural" characterization of racism very interesting as well. Thoj's use of masks for the killers to depersonalize them is a very interesting choice; as interpreted by Schein in the article: "it refuses exceptionalizing it by saying 'this is a few crazy people' and makes it more of a solid wall of something unknown" (446). This is a good and scary concept for a horror film that has been done before (for example, multiple killers use the same mask in "Scream"), but also incorporates Thoj's real-life fears to make a poignant statement about racism.
ReplyDeleteI also felt a lot of negative emotions while watching this documentary series. It made me upset that so many people suffered even after bringing so much to this country. I think it's a good thing that I felt these emotions because if other people who also watch this documentary feel the same way, they will avoid repeating these mistakes and injustices in the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree that with the model minority myth, there comes incorrect assumptions of financial security or assimilative, white-washed behavior that seemingly exempts a person from discrimination. Your point about the positive light that comes from the myth reminds me of how conditional that perceived advantage may be, so if an Asian-American doesn't conform to it, there are implied consequences but they're never made out to be racist because of the liminal position within the racial black-white binary. Instead, it becomes an issue of social welfare and intra-community affairs that allows mainstream media to criticize without admitting America's faults.
ReplyDeleteI also found Buddy Uno's story to be really compelling! I was sorry that we didnt actually hear more from his children. The documentary seemed determined to paint his life like a tragedy since he could never come back to the states but I wonder how true this was or if it just fit with the agenda of the documentary to prove Asian Americans were very patriotic. Similarly, I feel like Thoj's piece presents aspects of race and racism that do not fit the neat categories that existing narratives have for Asian American narrative. I think the film was never made because it tells a story that people dont really want to hear.
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