It might sound strange, but an Asian-American lead character playing a low achiever might just be what our community needs right now. The story of Asians in America is happy one at first glance — as the nation's fastest growing racial group, we're seen as educated "model minority" citizens who have earned society's respect. But Asian American achievement often faces backlash.
Princeton psychologist Susan Fiske
has found that people evaluate groups along two primary dimensions: warmth (friendly, trustworthy) and competence (capable, effective). Numerous surveys have found that white Americans generally receive high marks for both warmth and competence, while black and Latinx Americans are seen as less competent and get mixed results on warmth, both depending on factors like income and profession. Meanwhile, Asians and Jewish people are seen in these surveys as highly competent but colder, less friendly and maybe untrustworthy. These stereotypes can lead to feelings of envy, an ambivalent emotion that Fiske says is a mix of both admiration and resentment.
