Four Rivers Cultural Center will screen a documentary on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 5 p.m., examining a harmful Asian American stereotype.
The event commemorates the Day of Remembrance, the day in 1942 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, requiring the internment of all Japanese Americans during World War II.
Following the screening, there will be a discussion with San Francisco filmmaker Jon Osaki and a panel including Cathy Yasuda, executive director of the Treasure Valley Community College Foundation and Daniel Liera-Huchim, the community college’s director of equity and student relations
In “Not Your Model Minority,” Osaki looks at the “model minority myth” – a stereotype of Asian Americans as inherently successful, free of challenges and more upwardly mobile than other groups.
The documentary, which came out in 2021, explores the history of the model minority concept, which emerged during World War II.
After Japan attacked the U.S., the government incarcerated Japanese Americans – many born in the U.S. –under suspicion they were enemies of America.
After their release from the camps, Japanese Americans faced social pressure to project an image as model citizens to curb racist sentiment.
Japanese Americans, Osaki said, became “over-the-top assimilated.”
That effort to survive the bigotry of the time turned into a “harmful narrative” that pitted communities against each other” and lumped all Asian Americans together with other Asians, Osaki said. Those groups that the stereotype has divided Asian Americans from include Black and Latino communities.
“It’s a narrative that says ‘if you’re passive and you don’t complain, and you are just quiet and patriotic, you’ll get treated a little bit better,'” Osaki said.
The groups that are outspoken and protest, he said, are seen as the “bad minorities.”
Over the years, Osaki said the “model minority myth” has divided communities and created a situation where groups only advocate for themselves.
He said the purpose of the documentary is to forge a dialogue between groups and find commonality on issues.
Osaki said in rural communities such as Malheur County, educating young people about painful chapters of the county’s history has become less of a priority. Osaki said difficult periods of the country’s past, like putting Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II, are omitted or glossed over. He said it’s been replaced with a whitewashed, patriotic version of the country’s story, which only aims to discuss “what’s good about America.”
“Nobody is denying that we should not celebrate all the positive things about this country and what it means to be an American,” Osaki said. “Myself and many others believe very strongly that we have to learn from our history.”
He said the country also needs to understand its mistakes to avoid repeating them.
The free event will be held at 676 S.W. 5th Ave. in Ontario. Organizers ask that people register online in advance. For more information, call 541-889-8191.
News tip? Send your information to Steven Mitchell at [email protected].
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