So I’m currently midway through season 3, episode 13 of Fresh Off The Boat. And while I thoroughly enjoy the show and find its portrayal of Asian immigrants living in a Western country to be very true to life. I have a love-hate relationship with Jessica Huang.

As the title suggests, Jessica Huang is the type of woman who uses a door to get ahead, only to shut it closed behind her. She’s the type of woman who looks down on teachers while having been one herself. She’s the type of woman who looks down on her own sister for wanting to join an Arts school when she herself is incredibly creative. Jessica Huang is a hypocrite.

But she’s also a lesson. Because here’s the thing. Jessica Huang is the Asian mother many immigrant children are unlucky enough to have. She is judgmental, overly critical and strangely xenophobic despite being an immigrant and a foreigner herself.

You are not meant to root for her or commend her choices or values. The show does a very good job of framing her as a villain in most instances. Pretty much the only times she’s ever been in the right is when she’s defending her family.

Let’s Start With The Good

Jessica Huang is a very flawed parent. I’d even argue that she’s manipulative and emotionally abusive. She’s the type of parent to take away her son’s bed because he doesn’t care about school. Mind you, at the very beginning of the show, he was incredibly excited over his grades. He had straight As and Jessica immediately took that to mean he wasn’t being challenged enough at school.

And she ended up punishing him for succeeding by giving him extra work. He didn’t get any amount of praise and recognition for his hard work. So of course the boy doesn’t care. In fact, even while not caring, he’s still getting straights As.

But outside of this, Jessica stands up for her children. When Eddie was called a racial slur and got into a fight over it, his parents refused to allow the school to suspend him. Jessica demanded to know why the child who’d called him a racial slur wasn’t also getting reprimanded. And her affirming that she’s never going to punish her son for standing up for himself is A+ parenting.

And when Emery got into a fight with the drycleaner, she simultaneously tried to set a good example by showing that fighting isn’t the solution to every problem and also fought the scam artist behind her son’s back. And though I disagree with her approach, I think the drycleaner was trying to scam people and should’ve been taken down, I understand that life doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes, especially when you’re an immigrant, you have to bite your tongue and be the bigger person.

The Audacity To Complain About Money While Underpaying Your Workers

Jessica Huang complains about The Cattleman’s Restaurant staff being lazy and useless. Meanwhile, she’s actively creating an unsafe work environment by bullying them. She’s constantly in Louis’ ear, trying to persuade him to exploit them.

She chose to keep the restaurant open for thanksgiving and she advocated for the staff being forced to work without any extra pay. And the very fact that they stay at Cattleman’s despite it being a hostile work environment shows you how desperate they are.

Of course they make mistakes. They’re being harassed on a daily basis. They’re not stupid, they’re scared. And Jessica, rather than recognise she’s exploiting her staff to earn a profit, is content to consider them useless. She’s complaining about money while ensuring others suffer more.

Here’s the thing about people. We are inherently cowardly. We would much rather blame those in a far worse position to us than identify the real problem. Just like how a struggling middle class family might blame those living on government assistance rather than question why companies are allowed to make a profit at the expense of paying their staff less than what they need to live. Just like how the working class in a Western country may complain about there not being enough jobs. Might rail against exporting your labour to third world countries without considering that companies export their labour so they can get away with exploiting workers that much more.

Why is it that a CEO’s pay has risen by 1085% since 1978 when the typical worker’s has only risen by 24%? We have fast fashion companies making billions while outsourcing their labour to countries like Bangladesh where the workers earn $113 a month and are overworked to death just to survive.

The Rana Plaza incident happened in 2013. And for anyone who doesn’t know, the Rana Plaza incident was when a building collapsed due to structural failure and killed 1 134 people? Why did this happen? Because despite the building being declared unsafe, the owner lied and convinced the garment factory managers the building was safe. And the managers in turn threatened to withhold a month’s pay from any worker who refused to come back.

And you know what happened? Many of them died. Many were injured. And why? Because they had to keep up with the demands of the fast fashion industry. Yes, companies made a profit off the exploitation and murder of humans.

Maybe, companies turning over billions in profits should pay their workers liveable wages. Maybe, everyone who works a full time job should be able to afford food, shelter and basic living expenses. And maybe, if you run a business that hires full time employees, those full time employees shouldn’t need a second job for basic living expenses. And if you can’t afford to pay that, you can’t afford to run a business.

Because food, water, shelter and safety are human rights. Being a business owner is a priviledge. And just like how you couldn’t rent out an office space if you couldn’t afford the rent, you shouldn’t hire workers if you can’t afford to pay them liveable wages.

I don’t know about you, but I’m of the opinion that the real drain are the companies subsidising their profits by underpaying their workers. I think the reason why there are so many immigrants is because countries like America, and unfortunately Australia by extension, are making it unsafe for immigrants to stay in their country of origin.

Countries that had their governments dismantled, their people hurt and abused, and then simply left with no reparations are going to struggle. They will be more susceptible to exploitation because they don’t often have the resources to fight it.

Because again, their resources were stolen, their people were killed and the colonisers have made no reparations despite benefitting from it.

And when those very same people, the ones being exploited, choose to go to a western country for a better life, you have people villainising them. I’m sorry but any state that either perpetuated colonisation or whose majority is a product of colonisation has no leg to stand on when it comes to rejecting immigrants.

American was built by violent invaders who stole the land from its’ rightful people: the Native Americans. They murdered and they raped. And now their descendents are happy to reap the benefits of this violence and cruelty but definitely don’t want to take any responsibility.

The very idea that the descendents of those who raped and murdered their way into a country could possibly have a leg to stand on when it comes to dictating “legal immigrants” is laughable. So yes, Jessica Huang being anti-immigration and claiming she’s different because she “did it the right way” is very human of her. And the fact that she didn’t even realise her green card had expired and therefore, she was an immigrant, is unfortunately very real.

Because it’s hard to attack those who are keeping you at the bottom. It is hard to fight someone stronger than you. It is much easier to steal and to rail against those who have it worse. And the fact of the matter is, racism is dehumanising by its nature. The type of people who rail against “immigrants” don’t view the immigrants as actual human beings.

Jessica Huang Is The Perfect American (At Adopting Its Worst Values)

How many times has Jessica spoken about wanting to give her children a better life? And it’s okay for her to do so because she has the money to pay for immigrating to America legally and she was in a safe enough position to wait out the beauracracy of immigration.

There are many in a much worse position. It’s perfectly fitting that she puts herself on a pedestal for “doing it the right way” while ignoring the many reasons why someone may not be able to wait for the paperwork. Reasons like their life being at risk.

How many times has America destabilised a country? How many times has America lied to justify attacking a foreign nation or supplied weaponry to mass murder and even commit genocide? Of course they’re scared of immigrants, they’re afraid that history will repeat itself.

But the fact of the matter is, there is no such thing as being legal on stolen land. The only people who have a right to rail against immigrants are natives to that country.

I just wish the American government would stop meddling with the rest of the world. And honestly, while it may not be every American, it’s hard not to feel resentful of a country that’s caused so much devastation. And it’s hard not to judge when I’ve witnessed the American president attempt to bully Australia into dismantling its healthcare system? Why? Because apparently the fact that our government subsidises our medication and has a strong review process before any medication is allowed in is a threat to corporate profitability. Because why should Australians only pay $20 for a medication if the Americans are paying $1500?

And compared to what America has done to Palestine, Iran, Iraq and many other countries, that is the least of what they’ve done. They don’t need to be afraid of immigrants and foreigners. They wouldn’t have so many immigrants if they stopped creating them.

No, Jessica Huang is right. Clearly, the only immigrants who should be allowed in America are either the ones who raped and murdered their way in a few hundred years ago or those rich enough, and in a priviledged enough position, to afford immigration fees and be okay to wait through the bureacracy.

Final Thoughts

This review ended up being more anti-American than about Jessica Huang. But that’s because everything wrong with Jessica Huang is everything wrong with America: exploiting employees to earn a profit, being anti anti immigration until it benefits you, needing teachers but looking down on them and so much more.

But as an Australian, I know I am in a priviledged position. And we haven’t caused quite as much harm as America. But we have the same dark history. We also have issues with racism. And we not only enabled America but helped them with soldiers and weaponry.

So trust me, the only reason I spoke mostly about America is because Fresh Off The Boat is an American show. And it’s a damn good show. Its existence points out that despite America’s corrupt government, there are many who are good. Who understand what’s wrong with America but are unable to stop it.

Unfortunately, Jessica Huang isn’t one of them. But I hope she can develop enough as a character to one day become a good person.