Stereotypes about Asians just won't die

TWO ASIAN STEREOTYPES are alive and still in the minds of many non-Asians. They popped up again this week in the hubbub surrounding Donald Trump's racist remarks when referring to immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa.
In defense of Trump, a conservative commentator on CNN referred to the model minority trope when she said Trump “would welcome immigrants from Asia so he is open to accepting people from other countries.” said Carrie heffield said, referencing information from a White House official.

Liberal commentator Keith Boykin, who was on the same panel, called her on her use of the model minority image, “This is not good because it’s playing into the stereotype of the model minority,”

The comparisons of recent immigrants from South Asia, China and Korea working in tech and as engineers is not a fair comparison to immigrants who came as refugees or working in lower-paying jobs.

The model minority stereotype also hurts Asian/Americans because it ignores the wide diversity within that community, some who sruggle academically or live in extreme poverty.

The other instance of the Asian woman came about when NbC began researching other instances of racism in the White House. NBC investigators found out that when Trump was being briefed by a former senior analyst, who is Korean/American, about the situation on Pakistan, he interrupted the intelligence briefing by asking where she was from.

That's right that stupid question Asians and Asian/Americans have heard in our lives. This is how NBC reported the incident:

A career intelligence analyst who is an expert in hostage policy stood before President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last fall to brief him on the impending release of a family long held in Pakistan under uncertain circumstances.

It was her first time meeting the president, and when she was done briefing, he had a question for her.

”Where are you from?” the president asked, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the exchange.

New York, she replied.

Trump was unsatisfied and asked again, the officials said. Referring to the president’s hometown, she offered that she, too, was from Manhattan. But that’s not what the president was after.

He wanted to know where “your people” are from, according to the officials, who spoke off the record due to the nature of the internal discussions.

After the analyst revealed that her parents are Korean, Trump turned to an adviser in the room and seemed to suggest her ethnicity should determine her career path, asking why the “pretty Korean lady” isn’t negotiating with North Korea on his administration’s behalf, the officials said.

Was he even listening to the critical information in the briefing? Trump apparently had fallen under the spell of "yellow fever," a fetish for Asian women, something that is shared by alt-right men, according to a New York Times article.

"As a commenter wrote on an alt-right forum, 'exclusively' dating Asian women is practically a 'white-nationalist rite of passage,' reads the article.

Damn those stereotypes! They refuse to die!

(CORRECTED on Jan. 13, 8:30 a.m. PST, to correct subject of intelligence briefing.)

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Silicon Valley: Race trumps gender; Asians bump into bamboo ceiling

Asians find it difficult to move into leadership positions in Silicon Valley.

A NEW REPORT concludes that Silicon Valley high tech companies have a long way to go to reflect the workforce of the San Francisco Bay area, one of the most diverse regions in the country and Asians consistently bump up against the proverbial bamboo ceiling.

Although a large percentage of Silicon Valley workers are Asian, they are the least likely to be promoted to managerial or executive positions, in spite of being the largest minority group of professionals and the most likely to be hired.

The Illusion of Asian Success, a new report from the Ascend Foundation, a nonprofit Pan-Asian career lifecycle organization, spotlights the evolving challenges for Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and minority women in climbing the professional ladder to success.

While the Bay Area is home to one of the most diverse populations in the U.S., researchers found that diversity in technology leadership roles has generally stagnated over the last decade. 

RELATED: The Old Boys Club still rules Silicon Valley

The Ascend study finds that "it was clear that that efforts to promote more Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics have made no meaningful impact to the minority glass ceiling," said Buck Gee, a former vice president and general manager at Cisco Systems who is an Ascend executive advisor and a study co-author. "That said, we saw progress made by white women, so we know tech companies can change. Now it's time to do the same for minority men and women."

Other key findings in The Illusion of Asian Success:

• Race is an increasingly more significant impediment than gender to climbing the management ladder, with Asian women and Hispanic women most affected.
• Asians are the least likely to be promoted to managerial or executive positions, in spite of being the largest minority group of professionals and the most likely to be hired. In particular, Asian women are the least represented group as executives, at 66% underrepresentation.
• White men and women are twice as likely as Asians to become executives and hold almost three times the number of executive jobs.
• Even though white women are now substantially more successful in reaching the executive level than ALL minority men or women, white men are still 47% more likely than white women to be executives.
• Both Blacks and Hispanics have declined in their percentage share of the professional workforce despite efforts to hire more underrepresented minorities.

Co-author and Ascend executive advisor Denise Peck, a former vice president at Cisco, stated, "Minority women continue to bump against a double-paned glass ceiling. The data show that a general focus on developing women leaders has not addressed the distinct challenges for Asian, Black, or Hispanic women. This has been an unspoken truth in the minority community, and we hope that our report opens a long overdue dialogue. We encourage all companies to take a hard look at their minority pipeline and ask how they can do better."

READ: The Illusion of Asian Success

It’s part of a larger problem with diversity programs, said Y-Vonne Hutchinson, founder of ReadySet, a diversity solutions firm in Oakland.

“Because they are not thinking of women of color, they are not addressing the problems they face,” she said. “Disproportionately, the beneficiaries of these initiatives tend to be white women.”

Among the authors' recommended solutions are:

• Company programs to attract and retain talent should focus on black, Hispanic, and white women. Special emphasis should be given to retaining black women.
• Company programs to develop and promote leaders should focus on both men and women in the black, Hispanic, and Asian workforce. Special emphasis should focus on Hispanic and Asian women.
• Having previously analyzed national EEO-1 reports from 2014, 2015, and 2016 made public by individual Bay Area technology companies, we determined that our analysis of pipeline diversity at the Bay Area aggregated technology sector level in this report is entirely consistent with what we saw at individual company levels. The consistency, along with the scant progress for women and minorities in the Bay Area sector, suggests that the diversity challenge is a region-wide sector problem that should be addressed by the leading companies working collectively rather than each technology company working individually.
• The need for a collective effort has recently been recognized at the national level with the recent announcement of Fortune 500 CEO-led alliance “CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion” as a forum for sharing best practices. Many in the Bay Area have already joined the alliance, including CEOs from Adobe, AMD, HPE, Cisco, Netapp, and Salesforce. But as the next step, our clarion call is for the leading technology companies to join together in a cooperative effort to aggregate and analyze their internal data by race and gender; proactively enlist their minority leadership and employee community involvement; and develop joint and individual metrics to bend the curve in the Bay Area’s ability to attract, retain, and promote talented women and minorities. 

"In spite of companies investing in their recruiting and hiring of Asians, Blacks and Hispanics, advancement to senior corporate ranks and corporate boards is still highly limited," said Anna Mok, executive vice president and national board member of Ascend. "To make the systemic changes that positively impact and advance results, CEOs, their executive teams, and corporate boards need to actively lead change and drive solutions."

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The passing of an artist; David Bowie broke down barriers and prejudices

Jimmy King

David Bowie, 1947-2016

DAVID BOWIE died Sunday (Jan. 10) after an 18-month battle with cancer. Tributes and memorials came pouring in from around the world about his influence and impact on music.

I have to admit, at first, I was not a big follower of David Bowie. The shaved eyebrows, the eye makeup, the painted face, the outlandish clothes and outrageous performances, I thought, were merely role-playing and attention-getters in a world where everyone clamored to be "different. But, as he matured the musician/singer/songwriter helped form part of the soundtrack of my life.

With all the tributes by his peers in the entertainment industry, there is interview that sticks out and it had nothing to do about him.

In the 80s, MTV was still a fledgling entertainment network and music videos were still competing with vinyl records and tapes and there was still a debate which way the music industry was going to go and hovering in the background was this new thing called CD's.

During a 1983 interview with MTV veejay Mark Goodman, David Bowie asked a simple, important question, "Why aren't there more blacks on your network?" The question caught the interviewer by surprise. It was a question that I remember discussing with my friends at the time and one of the reasons I didn't watch much of MTV's shows. In those days, there was a network for black entertainment videos and there was the white-washed world of MTV. Even the great legend Michael Jackson had difficulty having his videos played on MTV.

Unlike some of the aspiring black artists of the time, Bowie's stature in the entertainment world was strong enough that he could ask the question without repercussions. He used his platform and - yes - his privilege to advocate for others without making it about himself. 

He didn't shout or point fingers, but in a nonthreatening manner, he made his point.

Was it Bowie's interview that changed the network's exclusionary policy? Maybe, maybe not. All that matters is that the racist policy changed and MTV helped launch the careers of several  black performers.

It was in Australia where Bowie had his "a-ha" moment that changed his life and cemented  me a fan.

"It occurred to me that one doesn't have much time on the planet, you know?" he said in a Rolling Stone interview. "And that I could do something more useful in terms of ... I know this is very cliche, but I feel that now that I'm thirty-six years old, and I've got a certain position, I want to start utilizing that position to the benefit of my . . . brotherhood and sisterhood." He winces, but continues. "I've found it's very easy to be successful in other terms, but I think you can't keep on being an artist without actually saying anything more than, 'Well, this is an interesting way of looking at things.'

...."There is also a right way of looking at things: there's a lot of injustice. So let's, you know, say something about it. However naff it comes off."

Maybe his most memorable statements on race and racism were his songs and videos "China Girl," and "Let's Dance," both of which were taped in Australia and directed by now famous movie director David Mallet starring a 23-year old New Zealand waitress/model Geeling Ng, (now, Geeling Ching) who turned her 15-minutes of fame into a television and modeling career.

In "China Girl," written with Iggy Pop, Bowie parodied the stereotypes about Asian women and mocked the imperialistic habits of Europeans and white Americans. 

Geela Ng and David Bowie in "China Girl"

My little China girl 

You shouldn't mess with me 

I'll ruin everything you are 

I'll give you television 

I'll give you eyes of blue 

I'll give you man who wants to rule the world

Not surprisngly, a relationship blossomed off-screen between Bowie and Ng. He took her on tour with him. "It was so special. The time I spent with David I would never trade for anything,' the now 55-year-old told NZ Herald after the 69-year-old lost his battle to cancer on Sunday.

Ironically, the "China Girl" video won "best video by a male artist" in the first MTV awards held in 1984.

"Let's Dance," the title song of one of Bowie's most successful albums, featured an Aboriginal couple struggling against Western cultural imperialism. The video was described by Bowie as a "very simple, very direct" statement against racism.

According to Mallet, they shot the bar scenes in the morning, which didn't go over well with the locals, who didn't appreciate Bowie and fashionable crew. Some of the patrons also resented the Aborigines who starred in the clip, and mocked them with their own dance moves. The white people dancing in the bar were really - I mean, really - making fun of the couple, according to the director.

Although Bowie was not a raving, shouting, sign-waving activist, in his low-key way, he did what he could as an artist to move society's acceptance and tolerance level a few notches upwards.  From his songs, his interviews, to the questions about his sexual orientation, he was in many ways a groundbreaking artist doing what he could to make this a better world. That's about all one can ask of one's life: To leave this world a little bit better than it was.

For more news about Asian American & Pacific Islanders, check out AsAm News.

Court takes a different slant on the Asian/American rock band's name

The band in the middle of the controversy.

RACIST names have been deemed OK by a ruling rendered by federal appeals court last week. A case involving an Asian/American rock band that called itself The Slants, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the band can call itself whatever it wants based on the First Amendment's Freedom of Speech provision.

"We’ve long held that this case is not the Pandora’s Box for hate speech, that free speech is absolutely essential for having nuanced discussions of race and identity," said the band members on their website. "We’re thrilled that the court recognizes not only our legitimate business practices, but our expressive and political speech as well, which lies at the heart of the First Amendment."

The Dec. 22 ruling In Re Simon Shiao Tam could have far-ranging impact on other trademark names such as that NFL team based in Washington that calls itself a racist term for Native Americans.

RELATED: Slants oppose NFL Redskins name

Despite opposition from other Asian/American organizations, the Portland-based dance/rock band will be allowed to continue using the racist monicker.

Like the rap group NWA using the dreaded N-word in its name "With Attitude," the artists seek to reclaim, or "take ownership" of the racist term and in so doing, they say, lessen the offensiveness of the word.

The court ruled:

The band draws inspiration for its lyrics from childhood slurs and mocking nursery rhymes, J.A. 130, and its albums include “The Yellow Album” and “Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts.” The band “feel[s] strongly that Asians should be proud of their cultural heritage, and not be offended by stereotypical descriptions.”

That's what they intend to do. I've never heard them perform, so I can't judge them musically. They certainly got a lot of publicity in this court battle.

“This case calls for an end to a law that is being used to suppress minority voices.” said David Rogers, executive director for the ACLU of Oregon,

When the Asian/American band sought to register its name with the trademark office four years ago, a Patent and Trademark Office examiner denied it for being offensive to Asians.

The office also took the same position against the Washington-based football team. But NWA has a trademark. How'n hell did that happen?

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the South Asian Bar Association of Washington DC (SABA-DC) and the Fred T Korematsu Center for Law and Equality jointly filed an amicus brief defending the U.S. government’s decision on The band's trademark application. From their press release:

“Asian Pacific Americans are all too familiar with the harm, including violence, that often accompanies racial slurs and epithets,” said NAPABA President George C. Chen. “Although I recognize the band’s intent to reclaim a historically disparaging term, as an intellectual property attorney, I also am cognizant that changing the U.S. trademark regulations to allow the registration of ‘The Slants’ could result in the trademarking of offensive terms by individuals and groups without similarly positive intentions.”

“SABA-DC deplores the use of racial slurs and epithets, and while the particular epithet involved in this case is not one that is usually directed to our South Asian constituency, we believe slurs against any racial or ethnic group are damaging to us all,” added SABA-DC President Habib F. Ilahi. “The First Amendment protects free speech, but it does not entitle those who wish to use such derogatory terms for branding purposes to receive the stamp of government approval.

If you want a bit of enlightened reading, check out pages 8 and 9 of the ruling. It's a list of trademarks rejected as disparaging by the Patent and Trademark Office.

These include: Stop the Islamization of America, The Christian Prostitute, Amishhomo, Have You Heard That Satan Is a Republican?, Democrats Shouldn't Breed, Republicans Shouldn't Breed, Fagdog and more, 

Good company, in my view and good reason to deny the name the band chose. But hey, I'm not a lawyer or a judge, just an apparently overly sensitive Asian/American who through my life has had to bear-and-grin-it after being called every derogatory Asian stereotype in the book.

The question arises then, is there no limit to offensive trademarks?

It is expected that the ruling will be appealed to U.S. Supreme Court. If the High Court agrees with the lower court, expect an explosion of expletive-deleted trademarked products to start appearing in our streets. Any semblance of civility or politeness, even if it is sarcastically called "political correctness," will disappear.

For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, go to AsAm News.

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2-minute YouTube video leads to the feature "Awesome Asian Bad Guys"

Some of the Asian bad guys and gals featured in the movie Awesome Asian Bad Guys.

TODAY'S THE DAY! Awesome Asian Bad Guys is now available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Xbox and Playstation! 

AABG has been a work in progress for several years. Buzz has been building with advance screenings at film festivals around the country and fundraising  on kickstarter to reach the $50,000 needed to finish the project has been going on concurrently.

If you’ve wanted to watch Stephen Dypiangco and Patrick Epino — better known as the National Film Society — reunite iconic Asian bad guys from the ’80s in the action/comedy Awesome Asian Bad Guys, but couldn’t attend one of the many festival screenings, now is your chance to download the film and watch it in the comfort of your own home.

An irreverent homage to the unsung villains of ’80s & ’90s action flicks, this nonstop romp plunges a motley crew of washed up Asian bad guy actors into a deadly mission to take down Los Angeles’ most nefarious mob boss.

Set in present day Los Angeles but packed with homages to classic ‘80s and ‘90s action movies, AWESOME ASIAN BAD GUYS is an ode to the tough as nails character actors who built their careers getting pulverized, impaled, and literally blown to bits. By becoming the heroes of their own story, these often overlooked icons fight for and earn the recognition, respect, and redemption they’ve long deserved.

The website states: 

"When we were growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, we’d always see hard-hitting Asian bad guys in flicks like Die Hard, Bloodsport, and Karate Kid 2. These badasses were often cooler than the heroes they fought, but they’d usually have a 2-minute lifespan before they were mortally wounded or beat to a pulp. It really sucked that you barely saw them on screen and rarely got to know them.

"We want to celebrate Asian bad guys (and girls) and their continuing inspiration and kick-ass contributions to pop culture history. Everything we do is devoted to our staunch commitment to give these guys their due.

"Being an Awesome Asian Bad Guy is a lifestyle – how you walk, how you talk, how you stroke your mustache. We believe everyone, Asian and non-Asian, should embrace the diabolical mastermind/henchman/crime boss/magical wizard/assassin who lives inside us all!"

The cast includes Tamlyn Tomita, Dante Basco Al Leong, Yuji Okumoto, George Cheun and a host of others whom most of us wouldn't know their names but whom we'd recognize  as soon as we'd see them.

The National Film Society is a digital movie studio co-founded by filmmakers  Epino and  Dypiangco, who’ve decided to take their talents to YouTube. With a uniquely brainy and offbeat style, they produce original content, collaborate with talented creators and make fun of each other as much as possible. Cue the harbinger of evil: G-O-O-N-N-N-N-NGGG!!

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An Open Letter to Asian Americans

Emma Stone. Asian? 

Ed's Notes: The following is an open letter to Asian Americans from Singapore-born Beverly Murray, who now writes out of Miami. For more on her edgy insights, check out her website at http://www.backthatsassup.com. Photos and captions are my additions.

DEAR Asian-Americans:

You already know the drill.

We live in a country where every time we turn on the TV, hardly anyone looks like us. No one in the movies has looked like us since we were kids. Onscreen, the ones who do look like us are either math nerds, asexual corporate drones, or prostitutes. We were stoked in the mid-90’s that finally, finally we were going to get a TV family that physically resembled ours. Of course, that show was abruptly cancelled, and we’ve had to wait another 21 years for a comparable Asian TV family.

Twenty. One. Fucking. Years. Welcome to our reality.

In a world that is becoming more interconnected by the day, where movie blockbusters and hit TV sitcoms export American soft power to the world, where diplomacy is carried out – not just within embassies – but vis-à-vis pop cultural icons and entertainers – Asian-Americans are invisible.

This phenomenon is especially disturbing when you look at the statistics: Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in the US. Our households outspend the average American family by 19% annually, and are more likely than the average American to spend more money on name brands – by a whopping 29%. We’re avid internet shoppers, spending almost double of what the average US population spends annually.

We need writers of all kinds such as 
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist
Alex Tizon, author of Big, Little Man

In short, we’re the perfect consumers. You’d think it’d make sense for TV networks and media companies to devote more time to Asian perspectives – but no. Year after year, we faithfully flock to opening nights of movies that reflect someone else’s narrative. Not ours. Not even close.

Which brings me to my next point. Unless you’ve been hiding a rock for the past week, you’ve probably heard about the Emma Stone kerfuffle.

You know, Emma Stone? Blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin, freckles. She’s playing the lead role in Aloha, a Cameron Crowe movie. As a half-Asian woman. Named Allison Ng. Who lives in Hawaii. A state which, despite being 60% ethnically Asian/Pacific Islander, has somehow been personified in an all-white cast. The fact that my mom’s maiden name is “Ng” is just icing on this giant ironic shitcake.

(To recap: Emma Stone, half-Asian woman, movie “all about Hawaiian cultural heritage”, all-white cast.)

So who’s to blame for this? Our first instinct is point fingers at Hollywood, and sure, the outrage is entirely warranted. Hollywood bears the brunt of culpability, because their entrenched myopia and inability to embrace our narratives – as rich and diverse as they are – has directly resulted in our pathetic representation in the media. To be fair, Asian-American groups have raised a huge stink about Aloha. And box offices around the country are hearing it, loud and clear. Heading into its second week of release, Aloha has raked in a paltry $10 million – Crowe’s worst movie to date. On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks Aloha at an abysmal 18%, so there is a good chance that this movie has managed to royally suck all by itself.

But is that the full story? Is Big, Bad Hollywood solely responsible for this void? Does that really explain why we aren’t better represented in the media?

My Asian brothers and sisters – you diverse, multi-colored, heterogeneous, polyglot group of sexy bitches. I need you to listen up. Part of this shit is our fault.

We're not saying wear your race on your sleeve,
but it would help a lot if major stars are more upfront about their mixed
Asian heritage. Yes, I'm talking about you Keanu Reeves. 

I’m talking to you, Asian parents. I see you with your flash cards, violin lessons, piano recitals, math drills, Kumon-everything. Quite frankly, it makes me want to scream. Not because I don’t believe in a rigorous education, or in setting high academic standards for kids. But because I’ve seen this dog-and-pony-show with my own eyes, way too many times. I know where it all leads. So many of you pay lip service to “encouraging creativity”, and sure, you’re proud of the odd watercolor painting here and there. And you’d probably come around if your child wanted to become a professional musician. But it’d better one of the traditionally prestigious orchestral positions (read: a cellist, and not, say a drummer in a punk band). You and I both know that within our communities, if little Kimmie wanted to study sculpture at a small, Midwestern, liberal arts college – 3/4 of you would freak the fuck out. We may not talk about this in public, but behind closed doors, away from “the other” Americans, many of us have acknowledged that this is an old, old record that we’ve heard in various iterations.

Justin Lin boldly went where few have gone. He is one of the few 
Asian Americans to break into the directorial ranks of Hollywood. He's 
currently helming the next movie installment of the Star Trek franchise.

I’m looking at you too, Asian kids. I’m stoked that you’re flocking to pre-med, engineering, and computer science programs. If this is truly what excites you – go for the gold. (And expect a call from me later – I hate dealing with the Apple Genius Bar). But for the rest of you who are secret artists, actors, writers, creatives. The weird ones. The black sheep of your families. The freaks who have always marched to the beat of their own drum. We need you. We need you now, more than ever. We need your names in lights, your stories on bookshelves, your art on display for all to see. Believe me, I know what kind of pressure you’re under. Most of us are from immigrant families. Some of us have known crushing poverty in our home countries. And if we haven’t, there is always that Asian perspective which holds that the needs of the group collective outweigh the desires of any one individual. We buy into the notion that the only acceptable route to the American Dream is via one of five career options. It’s a lie. And if you don’t reach back to yank out that apparatus that connects you to the Asian-American Matrix, you’ll live in crushing spiritual imprisonment, even as you peer out from your gilded cage.

Do it. Share your art. Do your thang, even if your parents tell you that entertainers have no future in States, that the safer option is to become a CPA. Do it even if you think you’ll fail spectacularly, because you don’t have the right look, the right build, the right whatfuckingever for audiences. Do it especially if it makes your soul sing, because you do the world no favors by hiding your light. It took me decades to realize this. And none too soon, because as we speak, even the publishing world is studiously whitewashing minority narratives.

Ruthie Anne Miles, Korean American actress/singer, joined a small club
of Asian American performers when she won a Tony award

 last week for her role in The King & I.

And if you’re not an artist? You sure as fuck are still a consumer, my Asian friend, and a discerning Grade A one at that. We don’t have to continue settling for movies and sitcoms with people who look nothing like us, whose experiences and voices are not our own. We can’t just politely ask and wait – we have to demand a seat at the table – call out networks and studios when they deploy another Tired Asian Caricature, and reward the progressive ones with our support, financial or otherwise. Support homegrown artists. It’s time for male Asian characters reclaim their swagger, lest we’re subject to another Hangover sequel with Ken Jeong’s naked ass and his inability to get laid; time for Asian women to be something other than modern day Suzy Wongs, auxiliary to whichever white heros they’re simpering over at present. Time for us to be an integral part of the zeitgeist.

Is this too much to ask? Don’t we have bigger fish to fry? Fuck that. All we have in the end are stories, stories that are ours, stories that deserve to be told in our own unique voices.

It’s what our forefathers would have wanted for us.

Originally posted at BACK THAT SASS UP on Sunday, June 07, 2015 AT 11:53 AM PDT.

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RELATED: Why Aloha means 'forget it!'

It's awards show season, but not for Asian Americans

Why all the Oscar's acting nominees are all white 

 And we close with Bruno Mars, who isn't afraid to represent.

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High expectations for Fresh Off The Boat television sitcom

Premiere is on Feb. 4

Eddie Huang's television family.

I WISH I could just sit back and watch Fresh Off The Boat, the sitcom featuring an Asian American family, without all the hoopla about the show's social and cultural significance. But watching the show without expectations is impossible now.

I want it to succeed so much. I want America to view the show and welcome the Huang's into their living rooms like I use to do with the Partridges, the Cunninghams, the Bunkers, the Keatons, the Cleavers, and of course, the Ricardos.

But what if it fails? What if FOB is a dud? What if it doesn't live up to the hype? What if its - GASP - not funny?

If FOB doesn't succeed - coming on the heels of the cancellation of Selfie starring John Cho - that might mean the death knell to any future attempt to put on a show centered around Asian characters. When Margaret Cho's All-American Girl ingloriously ended, it took the networks 20 years before one of them decided to take a chance with FOB.

FOB, the story of a Taiwanese American family based on the autobiography of restauranteur Eddie Huang, has already stumbled out of the gate.

First off, Fresh Off The Boat, is a derogatory term directed at new immigrants. I guess by making FOB so common, it is supposed to take the sting away from the term, much in the way African Americans turned around the use of Black. Still, couldn't the producers come up with a better title?

Next, Huang wrote an article for New York Magazine expressing his disappointment in the producers who, he said, are trying to make the show less edgy to make it more palatable to the mass market. Here's an excerpt:

“Just say the line,” said Melvin, our executive producer. 

“Did you read the book?” I asked. “If you can find any crumb of a complete thought in the book that remotely infers ‘America is great,’ I’ll read the line. 

“Eddie, we need it for the episode. It’s a big moment! You have a black kid and a Chinese kid breaking bread over a Jewish hip-hop concert. Where else could this happen? America IS great!”

A week before the show's premiere, the production's social media contractors tweeted this:

Oops!

Huang was furious. He tweeted, "maybe people are just fucking morons. you have to be a mouth breathing psycho to make that graphic."

The producers were embarrassed and apologetic. The social media promoters were given a serious dressing down for their ignorance and lack of sensitivity, according to Jeff Yang, "Wall St. Journal" blogger and father of Hudson Yang, who portrays Eddie Huang, the series' main character.

With great trepidation, I await the premiere of Fresh Off The Boat. There is lot more at stake here than just another new situation comedy: The Huang's could become the next great American sitcom family, giving the TV audience a view of Asian Americans that go beyond the old stereotypes, or ... it could be the last time a television show features Asian American characters as its main protagonists. 

If all that piques your interest, tune in on ABC on Wednesday evening's two episode premiere at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ABC hopes to get some of the audience of their hit Modern Family, which is squeezed between the two FOB episodes. Let's hope it works.

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