If you’ve never heard of Ryan Higa, there’s a chance that you may know him by his YouTube channel: nigahiga. Currently the most subscribed channel on YouTube with over 3.7 million subscribers, Higa has created a huge fan base by posting videos of silly skits, parodies and rants.
In Wesley Yang’s May 8th New York Magazine article “Paper Tigers”, he begins by asking “What happens to all the Asian American overachievers when the test taking ends?” Yang’s article discusses how Asian Americans are still saddled with stereotypes, but the difficulty of breaking down these stereotypes is how they are rooted in beliefs about educational success that is supposed to lead to overall success—the nerd, the good student, the model minority. His anger over these stereotypes comes out Yang’s frustration about Asian Americans’ career and/or life choices: when you are stuck with a stereotype of apparent success, what do you do?
