It's Fine is a handmade storybook featuring how Asian stereotypes can negatively affect a person. It has a focus on microaggression, and how little degradations based on race can add up and become something bigger.
This was a four week project in Story, where we had to focus on creating an interactive storybook that represents the research on the stereotype we picked. I picked the Model Minority stereotype, but with a focus on how casual racism can be harmful to an individual.
I researched the model minority stereotype extensively, and chose to focus on microaggressions and how those have an impact from someone growing up in America throughout their lifetime. The stereotype has several layers, mostly pertaining to how Asians have a strong work ethic, are determined to do well, have a desire to succeed, are quiet, are intelligent, are studious, are apolitical, and are productive to society.
I also interviewed three people, focusing on the notion of model minority, if they’d ever heard of the term, or if they agreed with it, and their opinions about it. I also asked for their opinions on whether they themselves fit the model minority, or if they ever felt that it was harmful.
The story follows Judy, who is initially accepting and okay with microaggressions. ‘It’s fine’. However, as time passes, she realizes the gritty underbelly of the so called ‘positive’ stereotypes that people assume of her. In the end, she’s had one too many microaggressions called against her, and she deems that it is no longer ‘fine’. I did not want the ending to be optimistic or happy - I wanted it to show that things were ambiguous, that things aren’t so easily fixed, that this is a reality that people face and that it hadn’t been ‘fixed’ yet.