What I Hear When You Say

When someone says Model Minority, I hear that our struggles arent visible to them.

Just because Im Asian, that doesnt mean Im good at math or science.

Its just crazy to think that people have these expectations of certain minority groups.

It doesnt allow us the full breath of our experiences.

Its an illusion.

Its a mask.

Its a fantasy Everyone is their own person and has their own individuality.

[MUSIC] If you tell anyone that theyre a model, theyre gonna be so flattered.

Theyre gonna be like, oh my god, you think Im a model? Come on.

What I hear when I hear the term model minority is, you go sit over there in the corner and be quiet and dont cause any problems and just do your math problems and play your violin, okay? And to that I say, model this. So I feel like all my life I was rebelling against the concept of the model minority.

I wasnt an academically strong student.

I always geared more towards theater, arts, and, you know, acting and things like that.

Any white person that thinks the model minority term is healthy, Id say, you dont judge me. Because its coming from the white perspective.

There is something inherently patronizing about it.

Even when its like, Oh youre so good.

Youre so obedient.

Good you. Its like patting me on the head.

Shut the...NO!

I dont need a pat on my head from you white dude.

Hollywood is very racist.

I recently auditioned to play the role of Golden Dragon Restaurant Lady.

She had one line and the line was, Beef and broccoli combo #2 with an egg roll. And the casting director said, Helen, could you try that again as if English was not your first language? I mean, she might as well have been like, Could you try that again as if you were the concubine of a rice farmer?

Could you try that again as if [hums Oriental Riff] is your favorite song? So I was like, Okay, if you want it, I will go for it. I went over the top.

I was like, BEEF AND BROCCOLI COMBO #2!

YOU EAT THE BEEF.

YOU EAT THE BROCCOLI.

YOU NO EAT EGGROLL I SHOVE UP YOUR And I got the part.

I want to be judged by the content of my character, my actions and my words.

So please, do that and stop telling me Im a freakin model minority.

Asians are diverse.

We are big, small, tall, short.

Saying that we are good at one thing, math, science or engineering is basically saying that all of us are tall or all of us are short.

It doesnt make sense.

In my documentary film, CAN, I focused on Vietnamese American family dealing with the mental illness of their son.

And one of the reasons I made this film is to help acknowledge the mental illness in our communities because of this public perception of Asian Americans as being wholly successful without problems.

When in fact we are a very diverse community with many problems.

The model minority myth is often used to disparage other minority groups.

Youre talking about 43 different ethnic groups who came under very different sociological circumstances.

Theyre all lumped together in the same category.

Theres a huge number who have less than an eighth grade education.

So its a misperception that there is homogeneity.

We definitely share many of the same issues that other minorities deal with in terms of immigration reform, lower salaries and glass ceilings in the workplace.

And without a doubt, weve been there, vocalizing and fighting alongside black, Latino, feminists and gay communities in American Civil Rights struggles.

There is intersectionality in the minority struggle without a doubt.

And if one of us is oppressed, truly none of us are free.

The concept hides the fact that we have a rich history of activism.

Were not model minorities.

Were models for activism.

And that is a layer of history which we miss.

Were just like African Americans, like Latino Americans, like any other minority groups.

We are out there trying to make changes.

When I was pretty young, I think I was in middle school, and my parents subscribed to TIME Magazine, and I remember there was a cover of the magazine that was titled, Asian American Whiz Kids. And I saw this and said, Wow, I dont really understand what this is but it seems good.

But as I came into my own racial consciousness and understanding about Civil Rights history, I came to understand how the model minority myth was a tool used to divide communities of color.

The term Asian American encompasses people from East Asia---China, Korea, Japan---Southeast Asia---like the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos---and South Asia---India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Well what they all have in common when they come to the United States is that they are racialized and become people of color.

Asian Americans experience the highest growth rate of any racial group in the United States except for Latinos.

Asian Americans also experience the longest period of unemployment during the recession than any other racial group.

The Asian American experience is the experience of immigrants.

Asian Americans are now the fastest growing racial group in the United States.

There is tremendous intersection of interest between Asian Americans and Latinos on the issue of immigration reform.

But what the model minority myth hides is that there are 1.3 million undocumented Asians who would benefit from comprehensive immigration reform, just like Latinos and every other immigrant group.

But one of the great things that I learned about Asian American history is that it was African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans standing side by side to demand visibility, to demand ethnic studies programs, to demand liberation for generations of being denied equal opportunity.

We have a long history of activism that we need to remember and that we need to guide us today.

What I hear when I hear about model minority is quiet, obedient, good at math, good at violin.

And there are definitely Asians that are that person but Im not one of them.