I Am Who I Say I Am
I Am Who I Say I Am
Invisible Foreigner
“You are not a real American”, said my student. Lana looked at me with her big puppy dog eyes with her big round gold frames. She was a 19 year old student from a small city in China and I was the first foreigner she had ever met.
Taming the Tigers of Our Minds and Upbringings
I think one of the most difficult things that I have dealt with growing up Asian American are the cultural differences. I can’t speak for other generations, but as a first generation and only daughter in my family I think the direct conflict of eastern and western values causes tension.
Half In, Half Out
June is pride month, and major cities are hosting their own pride parades. In my own little circle,friends are planning on going. Some of them invited me, but I turned them down. This is the second time I have not joined Pride. I want to go to Pride when I am fully out of the closet.
The Asian-American Identity Crisis
Asian students at my school are divided into 2 categories: Asians who were born or grew up in America and FOBs—defined as someone of Asian descent who has recently immigrated to a new country.
When Privilege Keeps Indonesian Women From Speaking Up
Since I started writing dissenting opinions in a popular public online media, I have garnered an audience of young women from the ages of 18 to late 20s. I find it surprising that they look up to me. I know I could be problematic in certain ways, but I didn’t like how women idolized me in such a way.
Nowhere To Call Home
I was adopted from South Korea and brought to to the US when I was a baby. I’ve grown up in a white American family in a predominantly white community. There aren’t any other Koreans, and hardly any Asians at all for that matter; so I’ve grown up extremely whitewashed, cut off from anything Korean, deprived of diversity.