June 15, 2013

• Insomnia Entry: How long have you lived here?

  Helen was telling me that on the bus the other day, a guy came up to her and asked her, “How long have you lived in the U.S.?” She was a bit shocked at the question having already made some polite small talk with this guy earlier, and then later got mad about it. “Do I look like a fob?!” she asked me. No, actually, Helen looks like any other American Asian. That question infuriated her because she felt that the said guy only asked her that question because she was Asian. “I was born here!” She told him. “Oh!” He was surprised.

  I immediately asked her “Was he an old white guy?” to which she said “No, he was an old Asian guy.” His question made her mad because she felt that the only reason he asked her that question was because she was Asian. Given his fluency in English, he should have understood inherently that it’s a large possibility that she was born here. We realized it was annoying because not only was it racism, but it was racism from our own kind. That question by itself is already annoying on so many levels: what do you imply by asking this question? Do you know that this is the only home I’ve ever known? Some of us have never even set foot in Asia. It’s not that we don’t want any connection with our “roots” but it’s like asking an African American if he’s been back to Africa lately. No? And why would he? This is his home! This is when I realize that the typical image of an American is not as inclusive of Asians or Brown people (aka Mexicans) as they are of ethnicities on the extremes of the color spectrum (black or white). Not sure about that? Next time watch when you ask yourself “how long have they been here?” and then find out that they are (shockingly) born and raised here – maybe even their parents too!

  I can’t say that I’m free of racism against other Asian people either. In particular, I get very annoyed when people from China or Asia come here and act like this place is an extension of their homeland. No, this is America, you should learn English, learn the culturally accepted norms of public behavior (aka not spitting everywhere in public), stop talking so loudly everywhere you go, etc. I’m all for diversity, but it really bothers me when people live in another country permanently and don’t try to integrate.

  I think that’s what really annoyed me when I lived in Holland, which is not really a culture used to immigrants (as much as they’d like to believe they are). Everywhere I’d go people would ask me what part of Asia I was from. Well, I’d tell them, I grew up in Los Angeles and I was born in Louisiana, but my parents were from Taiwan if that’s what you mean. Telling people that, you’d have thought I was telling them the biggest secret of the universe. Their eyes would get all big and then they’d ask “so what language do you speak? Taiwanese? Thai?” That is when I mentally shoot myself with my internal rainbow pistol.

  • 9:02 am
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