LaaF…Culture!

The Umbrella Academy is a great (comic-book) genre offering from Netflix since it cancelled all of its Marvel shows (darn that Disney!).

3 SENTENCE REVIEW

The Umbrella Academy is a fun and colorful mix (yeah, the representation adds interesting layers) of a story about a dysfunctional team of 7 non-biological siblings raised by an emotionally detached and shadowy father.  It has a little bit of everything – drama, action, humor, sci-fi, mystery, romance, and the 2nd season takes it even further with historical fiction that has surprisingly timely social commentary.  But what sets this show apart from the rest of the comic-book genre shows is the way it goes deep into the emotional complexities of family, using flashes to different points in time (like Lost…dang i miss that show) to explore its characters, as each one wrestles with their own demons to come together.  8 out of 10.

BEN AS METAPHOR FOR AN ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Before I start here, I have to give a number of disclaimers.  One, especially with season 2, there’s a lot that can be said about the dynamics for the POC in this show (Alison as a black woman thrust into the civil rights era and how she so tragically states to Ray how not enough has changed decades later to present day, Diego as a brown man that is often cast aside and not taken seriously) but I will leave that to people more qualified to speak on it.  Two, although I have the lived experience of an Asian American I am by no means an expert on the Asian American experience and I realize the problematic nature of treating that experience as a monolithic experience…hence I say “an” Asian American experience not “the” Asian American experience.

Okay, with that said, you ready to jump in?  In a number of ways I see the character of Ben, number 6 in the Hargreeves family (played by Korean American actor Justin H. Min), as a metaphor for a lot that resonates with an Asian American experience.

INVISIBILITY:  As someone who is deceased, Ben is literally invisible to everyone else.  Even the one person who can see him, his white step-brother Klaus, often ignores or disregards Ben.  In the series Ben is often resigned to his place and that he will not be listened to.  Like Ben, this is a common experience for the Asian American who is often not seen in larger society.  They are a minority in America and even amongst conversations regarding POC they are erased or moved to the background.  They are simultaneously silenced and criticized for being silent.  Rarely are Asian Americans portrayed as main characters in American stories or places of authority.  Rarely are Asians Americans part of whatever cultural discussion is taking place at the table.  Asian Americans often feel invisible.

PROXY:  The only way that Ben can “touch” or interact with the world is by proxy through his brother Klaus.  Ben doesn’t even have a choice in who represents him but it must be through a white man (and a pretty self-centered one at that), in fact (spoiler alert) he is only seen as attractive in the body of a white man.  Ben only lived till his teens so he is stuck in this pre-pubescent stage of development.  Like Ben, in order to be noticed in America, many Asian Americans are made to feel that the only way they can move forward in this world is to do things the white way.  And as White Americans are the dominant and majority (for now) culture that holds power there’s not as much of the kind of privilege for minorities to change what is set as the norm.  Often Asian Americans feel cut short before being able to develop to their full potential to be seen and celebrated on their own terms.

LIMINALITY:  Ben is not fully in the realm of the dead nor in in the realm of the living.  He is not fully human nor fully (literally a) monster.  He exists in a liminal space (to borrow from the Asian American theologian Sang Hyun Lee).  There is melancholy there but there is also a unique power there.  As season 2 progresses (spoiler alert) he is the only one, out of all the siblings, that is able to step in where no one else can to bring redemption – to see the sibling that feels alienated because he knows what its like to occupy that space and bring assurance that we are not all monster.  Like Ben, Asian Americans are not fully accepted as Asian in Asia nor are they fully accepted as American in America.  Even if they are born here and have lived here for generations they are persistently asked “Where are you from?”  Asian Americans are viewed as perpetual foreigners, aliens, and even as monsters of yellow peril that are all somehow responsible for a virus like Covid-19, as an entire race.  But like Ben, Asian Americans don’t always have to be the victim of circumstance.  They can choose to own their role in the liminal space for creative solutions outside the box, prophetic witness, and as a bridge between oppressed and oppressor (both of which they may find in themselves).

Maybe Asian Americans are here for such a time as this, when it feels the world is ending that there is hope in the now and not yet.

Tags: asian americans, ben hargreeves, liminal space, netflix, umbrella academy