Change in Color: Episode 4

Meet Helen Lee Helen is a third year at UCLA who is in the process of creating her own major called Human rights and technology. She is of South Korean descent and an immigrant. Helen talks about what it’s like being an young immigrant with her twin sister in Los Angeles and coping with a congenital jaw disorder. Furthermore she discusses how Asian people are constantly under pressure with the model minority complex and the effect on their mental health. Additionally she touches on what it’s like dealing with her own history of enduring sexual abuse and coercion.

Definitions: Model minority: a group whose hard work, initiative, personal responsibility, and success offer proof that American meritocracy works as intended. This stereotype is often held up as proof that some racial stereotypes can be favorable, even flattering.

ib-dan ei-gi ju-eiu society meaning “group greed”: in reference to the concept of a low-trust society. means that an individual’s important groups (family, alumni associations, one’s team at a company) take precedence over all else and one acts in a selfish fashion when it comes to looking out for these groups. In other words, “looking out for number one” means loyally serving one’s group.”