And the Oscar for Most Artificially Racialized Movie goes to….

• Source

Making Intersectional History

---

Woohoo! The highly anticipated movie Crazy Rich Asians is coming out and it’s already breaking all stereotypes and typical white-centric historical structures of society in America because… Asians? Huh?

• Source

It’s no surprise that there’s a good amount of hype surrounding this new release. According to our current Zeitgeist, the movie is first and sole example of proper ‘representation’ of us Asians. It can almost be made into an SAT question -

Black Panther : Black Americans // Crazy Rich Asians : ________

Just have a look at some of the quotes regarding the movie from this article from The Hollywood Reporter and quoting the cast members themselves.

• Right...

• What. Humility.

And a lot of Asian Americans (spoiler: that was the answer) are putting this movie on the line as another ethnic landmark in American cinema. An all-Asian cast in a country where Asians only constitute less than 6% of the population? Insane! Finally, I can go from being a subhuman minority of color to become an actual person with real personhood because I can see so much of myself reflected in the actions of Constance Wu.

You can probably sniff the sarcasm off of me. The movie isn’t even out yet, and the actors, actresses, and director are acting (get it?) as if this is already going to be some milestone simply because they themselves are in it. Because they happen to be Asian.

• I'm important because I'm asian. Look at me. Source

I’m all for more respect and representation in society. I’m all for us communally celebrating accomplishments of particular groups. But when that is done so artificially, as if to preemptively elbow out any room for criticism (because God forbid, any critique of Crazy Rich Asians would be RACISM, GASP), I lose tremendous respect for people who assume their actions and personhood are worthy of the history books. Do your job, do it well, and if done right, society will acknowledge and celebrate you. Don’t make that decision on your own.

Frankly, this movie looks like a cheap sitcom that relies on a gimmicky aspect of high asian society. I’m open to be proven wrong, just don’t resort to virtue signaling to twist my perspective. I’m happy to see more asians taking on their work with commitment and purpose, though I’m not sure the over superficiality and spoiled lifestyle is the bit I’d like to see highlighted.

Steem on kids.