The global creative firm Wieden & Kennedy (W+K) released a new film in May, just in time for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) month.
“The Myth” is the perfect title for the new film promoted by the leading advertising firm. That’s because the entire film is based on sophistry and a conspiratorial theory, resulting in a story that totally ignores Asian excellence, stokes racial tensions, and worse, outright promotes Anti-White animus.
How, you ask, could I say such a thing?
After all, the film starts with a little Asian girl next to an American flag. It’s a story about belonging and inclusivity, right? That’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
If only that’s what “The Myth” was about: The American story of an immigrant population who, in spite of real hurdles like, yes, racism, have managed to achieve stratospheric success.
Asians, in fact, have the highest median income of any group in America. Far higher than whites, who, we are constantly told, oppress and prevent other non-white groups from succeeding.
But to understand the message of the film, “The Myth”, you must first understand the underlying poisonous argument of its narrative. A lie emanating from the Left today.
“The Myth” Embraces A Conspiracy About White America
The argument being made by the Left and embraced in “The Myth” is this: White people are the source of all ethnic tension and “whiteness” is what truly ails us as a society—specifically, those twin scourges of “white privilege” and “white supremacy”.
White people, the argument goes, are born racists by deign of their skin. And everything they have created—all American laws, institutions, and policies—are, therefore “systemically” racist and “white supremacist”.
This is the basic premise of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) movement. In a nutshell, these movements claim the very fabric of America was woven together with the expressed purpose of oppressing people of color, to keep them in check. All done with the intention of preserving “white power”.
Unfortunately, when it comes to Asian Americans, CRT/DEI’s porous logic runs into the hard brick wall of reality. Asian excellence defies the assertion that “People of Color” (POC), can’t succeed because of America’s supposed “systemic racism”.
Asian achievement throws a monkey wrench into the Left’s “white supremacy” argument – a charge that’s recently been mainlined into America’s body politic by the Democratic Party.
Asian American success bears witness to the imperfect, but still enviable, U.S. system of individual rights, free markets, and equality before the law (not equity which demands equal outcomes).
This may explain why so many Asians immigrate here and are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country.
So, why is the progressive Left hellbent on dividing Americans into warring tribes? And what does it have to do with America’s overachieving Asians?
Conjure up a new pernicious myth.
“The Myth” Replaces A Positive Myth With A Negative One
“The Myth” attempts to blow up the stereotype of Asians as America’s “Model Minority”.
What is the “Model Minority”? It’s essentially a common, positive stereotype about Asian-Americans:
it’s an ethnic minority demographic group whose members are perceived to achieve a higher degree of socioeconomic success than the population average. This success is typically measured by income, education, low criminality, and high family/marital stability” [1]. Asian Americans are commonly seen as the ‘model minority’.
While the film’s title suggests the goal of the piece is to shatter the “myth” of the “Model Minority”, bringing more nuance to the Asian-American story, it doesn’t actually do that. It just swaps one “myth” about Asians for another, replacing the supposed “myth” of Asians being high-achievers with another more vile myth: that Asians are servile, agreeable, and “model citizens”, but only because white people made them this way.
Dissecting The Not-So Subtle Racism In “The Myth”
The filmmakers of “The Myth”, start the film, with a uniformed, forlorn-looking Asian girl, about to have her school picture taken. White hands from a man appear from out of frame, as he raises her chin to orient her for the photo.
“A model student… a model citizen”, the narrator says as we watch this.
The suggestion here, of course, is that she is already being molded into some perfect “white standard” by white people, even as a young girl.
It’s instructive to note that by constructing a new “Model Minority” myth, the film avoids any depiction of Asian success. Our female Asian hero is fatherless and low income. She is presented as servile, quiet, and agreeable—all familiar Asian stereotypes—and “They”, she tells us, made her this way.
Clearly, this is the new “myth” about Asians we are being asked to accept.
But that’s not the only troubling part.
A Film Dripping With Anti-White Racial Animus
What reveals “The Myth” to be anti-white? The narrator’s monologue.
Repeatedly she says “They” did all these terrible things to her. “They” made her a “model citizen”. “They” wanted her to comport to some inauthentic cultural standard.
The film continues with its conspiratorial invocation of “They”.
“They”, our “Model Minority” heroine says, created a “false reality designed to serve a purpose, to serve a people.” We hear this as we see her serve a table filled with mostly white male businessmen.
Later, as she angrily stares into her mirror, the message is clear: white people turned her into the servile, unhappy “model minority” she now loathes herself for being.
“They” did it to her. White America did it.
“The Myth”, reinforces this assertion by reminding the viewer that white America is indeed very very racist. To prove this, in one early scene, “The Myth” shows our main character watching a racist cartoon caricature of Asians—a cartoon created before the invention of color television.
But why go back more than a half-century to demonstrate racism against Asian-Americans when Anti-Asian racism is alive and well today?
For example, at Leftist-dominated universities Asians are blatantly discriminated against—right now—because they are overrepresented on campuses across America due to their high performance. So Asian applications are routinely denied based on their ethnicity. But to point this variety of racism out, would be to implicate the progressive Left who proudly discriminates in the name of “Equity.”
“The Myth” Almost Tells The Truth. Almost.
“The Myth” does something really surprising about half way through the story: It almost tells the truth. Sort of.
The film acknowledges the very real tensions between the Asian and black communities today while showing what appears to be footage from the LA riots. However, one wonders why one of the many, terrible recent acts of violence done to Asians wasn’t shown. Instead, the creators opt for 30-year-old LA riot footage.
In any case, you’ll never guess who’s at fault for modern-day tensions between the black and Asian communities?
That’s right, again, “They” are to blame.
Implied in the film, white people have forced Asian people to be “model minorities.”
Which then, we are told, makes black people perceive the Asian community as their enemy.
If you’re confused by “The Myth’s” logic, remember, white Americans must always play the part of the privileged oppressor, or the Neo Marxist/CRT critique of America’s system would be shown to be a fallacy. And Asians must be portrayed as oppressed, but certainly not by another oppressed “POC” group (black Americans). That won’t do, because that would also debunk the “white supremacy” fallacy.
This explains the tortured and conspiratorial through-line on display in “The Myth”. We’re asked to believe—sans evidence—that it’s conniving, racist white people who have somehow, cleverly and inexplicably, turned Asians and black people against each other by making Asians into “The Model Minority” against their will.
A Beautiful Film With An Ugly Theory
While the film is well-shot and beautifully edited, the obviously talented creators could have achieved a similarly powerful statement by exploring the idea of a “Model Minority Myth” without blatantly stoking racial division. They could have explored racial tensions without imparting blame (without evidence). They also could have explored what role, if any, Asian culture might play in perpetuating the supposed “Model Minority” myth.
But ultimately, “The Myth” opts for social justice sophistry, casting all Asians as hapless victims, bereft of any free agency. Indeed, “The Myth” presents Asian-Americans as being uniformly shaped and defined by whites alone and, what’s more, would have us believe that white Americans have successfully executed a plot to make black Americans see Asians as their enemies.
That’s one very ugly conspiracy theory.
The film would also have us forget all Asian-American achievements while seeking to debunk a very positive reality: That Asians as a whole, like so many other minority immigrant groups, are a true American success story.
But in a world that celebrates victimhood, “The Myth”, wants to convince us that success is actually a myth for Asian Americans.
Grievance, you see, is the new success.
“The Myth” never explains why Asians keep immigrating to America en mass only to suffer such abuse at the hands of a country filled with “white supremacy”. Perhaps the film doesn’t attempt to answer this question because it can’t explain the obvious contradiction.
And because of all this, “The Myth”, in the end, only delivers, well, more myths.
Myths about Asian-Americans. Myths about white Americans. Myths about our nation that won’t help us heal, but most assuredly will further our ethnic divides.
Brett Craig is EVP, Creative at The Daily Wire. He has created multiple Superbowl ads and was featured on Adweek’s Top 50 movers and shakers list.
This is an edited version of an article published on the author’s Substack page ADWOKE.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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