Racialized Labor, Immigration, and East Asian Stereotypes on The Office

                                                                                                                                                              

NBC's "The Office" is my favorite show of all time, but this does not mean it is not problematic. While the show includes a healthy dose of POC representation, with well written Indian, Black, and Latino characters who are complex and challenge racial stereotypes, without decent representation of East Asian characters this picture is incomplete. "The Office" is severely lacking in East Asian characters, and the ones that are present on the show represent this demographic poorly.

In the clip I've pasted above, Heday, a minor character on the show, recalls having been a prominent heart surgeon in his home country of Japan before accidentally killing a Yakuza boss during surgery and escaping to America. Heday brags about his "house, American car, and new woman" and attributes his success in the U.S to Darryl. In about forty five seconds, 'The Office" inundates its audience with stereotypes of race and immigration. Heday speaks in a stereotypical Japanese accent, mispronounces English words, mentions affiliation with the Yakuza, and claims to travel to America by stowing away on a fishing boat. Heday is probably the only recurring East Asian character on "The Office," but he is more of a caricature.

Here, Heday embodies what Georg Simmel calls "The Stranger." While Simmel's "stranger" originally referred to the Jew, the concept also applies to the "immigrant", the "other," etc. Simmel explains that the stranger "is fixed within a particular spatial group, or within a group whose boundaries are similar to spatial boundaries. But his position in the group is determined, essentially, by the fact that he has not belonged to it from the beginning, that he imports qualities into it, which do not and cannot stem from the group itself." The spatial group that Heday is fixed in is the U.S, in a group bound by Western culture. As Simmel mentions, "he has not belonged to it [the group] from the beginning ... he imports qualities into it." The immigrant, or the "stranger," as Simmel calls him, is a vital part of the group, but at the same time is permanently alienated from it. He is defined by his foreignness. Heday's character is only a collection of East Asian tropes and stereotypes. The so-called humor attached to Heday's character lies in his foreignness. His defining characteristic is simply that he is different, and he is different because he is East Asian.

Heday's character also speaks to the racialization of labor in the U.S, and how our society views immigrants. As Jasmine mentioned in her post, "Racialized Labor in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit," racialized labor and illegality intersect often, and we see this on "The Office." Heday claims he came to the U.S by stowing away on a fishing boat, suggesting that he entered the country "illegally" and without documentation. Here we see a stereotype that if he is an immigrant, he must be "illegal." Having once been a successful heart surgeon, without documentation Heday must work in a warehouse, organizing, storing, and delivering paper. Rather than being bitter, he is grateful, and thanks Darryl - an American - for the new life he has. Because Heday is a caricature of East Asians and of immigrants, his transition from doctor to warehouse worker paints a bleak picture of the way we look at immigrants in our society and what roles we expect them to take as far as labor goes. A stereotype like Heday suggests that we value immigrants as servants to perform unskilled labor, rather than as educated individuals on equal footing with their non-immigrant counterparts. Not only that, but we expect them to be grateful and want to make this sacrifice in order to live in America. At the end of the video, Heday reveals that he killed the Yakuza boss on purpose. He knew he would have to sacrifice his career and his life in Japan and travel to America for an uncertain future. Furthermore, we expect them to be grateful for their subordinate positions in American society. Heday regards Darryl as a savior for giving him a job. He brags about his "house, American car and new woman." But did he become a U.S citizen? He doesn't say. The fact that he lives in America and performs unskilled labor seems to be enough of a success.