[Music]
[Applause]
asian-american for most of my life my
identity has been anchored to these two
words that placed me at the convergence
of two strong and vibrant cultures I was
happy to call my own but we’re in a
little bit of a national soul-searching
trend right now so I’ll jump on the
bandwagon and ask what does it mean to
be Asian American I realized I didn’t
have an easy answer
so I spent several months thinking on
this question dancing around stories I
did not want to remember and topics I
did not want to talk about when I was in
second grade one of my best friends sat
me down on the playground during recess
and told me can I ask you something
thinking back this was probably my first
real break up because she followed it up
with my mom says we can’t be friends
anymore I asked her why and she said
because you’re Chinese
I went home crying that day and my mom
explained to me how to Chinese and
American military planes had collided
midair that week despite beginning each
morning with I pledge allegiance to the
flag
my classmates saw me as not American and
I could not erase their association of
me an eight-year-old girl with the scary
geopolitics that permeated the news for
the first time in my life I felt a wall
thrown up over that – between Asian and
American a week later the situation
de-escalated my classmates forgot this
whole thing and we all went back to
being friends at recess but I never
actually forgot that nagging feeling
that wall nor the thought that I was not
really asian-american
I was more accurately Asian in America
while I never encountered another
situation as brutally or openly
discriminatory in the 16 years have
followed there were always little
reminders when I began debating in high
school someone told me you’re a good
debater for an Asian has if my debate
skills needed to be contextualized by my
face instead of what I brought to the
debate floor one of my Chinese friends
was told now that I’m meeting you face
to face I do hear a little bit of an
accent she spent her entire life in the
u.s. that speaks perfect perfect English
so while rarely malicious in intent
these comments perpetuates society’s
constant and subtle reminder that we are
still seen as foreign all of this goes
head to head with another term closely
associated with Asian American identity
model minority coined in 1966 at the
height of the civil rights movement by
sociologist William Peterson it shrouded
us out as proof that with hard work you
can be a successful American too it
conveniently ignored crucial factors
like equal access to good education
integrated schools fair justice systems
rights that other minorities were
fighting for in courts schools diners
and on the streets nationwide 50 years
later an Asian American reporter for the
same newspaper that published the
original model minority story is told to
go back to his country that’s because
model minority is a deceptively
beneficial stereotype
while it is kinder than other racial
stereotypes and has brought some success
academically and professionally that
success is based on a narrowly defined
scope based on what society deems to be
appropriate
for a minority quiet non confrontational
and respectful of authority it flattens
us 19 million people across dozens of
countries into one demographic mush it
highlights the few of us that have
reached this narrow success while
dismissing the others still caught in
the minority struggle worst of all with
a single stroke it shuts us up when we
march for social change when we share
our stories when we ask where are our
actors who are more than just kung-fu
sidekicks
where are our chefs who cook more than
noodles tossed in soy sauce and sriracha
I don’t even like sriracha
where are our writers our artists our
leaders the model minority label hands
the rest of America an easy rebuttal you
Asians are doing so well what do you
have to complain about because to talk
about being asian-american is to
navigate the delicate balance of all of
these social issues without quite
frankly pissing anyone off we are
American but not quite enough because we
still feel foreign in a place that we
call home some of us have reached
academic and professional success but
only on a narrowly limited scope and
with the need to work twice as hard to
reach the same end point we are modeled
but only by a white man
socio-politically motivated definition
and therein lies the problem since the
first boatload of asian-americans
arrived on our country’s western shores
where we fit in American society has
been defined for us by other people our
Asian American story is not an easy one
to tell nor is it easy to understand it
is individually and culturally specific
it is convoluted and nuanced and
sometimes even we can’t make sense of it
but it needs to be told and told by us
the Asian Americans when I look around
me when I look here I see my neighbors
my colleagues my friends my mother my
sister I see before me a nation of
stories waiting to be told we are here
to reclaim our Asian American story to
retire every term from Yellow Peril to
model minority we are here to define
where we fit in our words in our way to
color this American story thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
asian-american for most of my life my
identity has been anchored to these two
words that placed me at the convergence
of two strong and vibrant cultures I was
happy to call my own but we’re in a
little bit of a national soul-searching
trend right now so I’ll jump on the
bandwagon and ask what does it mean to
be Asian American I realized I didn’t
have an easy answer
so I spent several months thinking on
this question dancing around stories I
did not want to remember and topics I
did not want to talk about when I was in
second grade one of my best friends sat
me down on the playground during recess
and told me can I ask you something
thinking back this was probably my first
real break up because she followed it up
with my mom says we can’t be friends
anymore I asked her why and she said
because you’re Chinese
I went home crying that day and my mom
explained to me how to Chinese and
American military planes had collided
midair that week despite beginning each
morning with I pledge allegiance to the
flag
my classmates saw me as not American and
I could not erase their association of
me an eight-year-old girl with the scary
geopolitics that permeated the news for
the first time in my life I felt a wall
thrown up over that – between Asian and
American a week later the situation
de-escalated my classmates forgot this
whole thing and we all went back to
being friends at recess but I never
actually forgot that nagging feeling
that wall nor the thought that I was not
really asian-american
I was more accurately Asian in America
while I never encountered another
situation as brutally or openly
discriminatory in the 16 years have
followed there were always little
reminders when I began debating in high
school someone told me you’re a good
debater for an Asian has if my debate
skills needed to be contextualized by my
face instead of what I brought to the
debate floor one of my Chinese friends
was told now that I’m meeting you face
to face I do hear a little bit of an
accent she spent her entire life in the
u.s. that speaks perfect perfect English
so while rarely malicious in intent
these comments perpetuates society’s
constant and subtle reminder that we are
still seen as foreign all of this goes
head to head with another term closely
associated with Asian American identity
model minority coined in 1966 at the
height of the civil rights movement by
sociologist William Peterson it shrouded
us out as proof that with hard work you
can be a successful American too it
conveniently ignored crucial factors
like equal access to good education
integrated schools fair justice systems
rights that other minorities were
fighting for in courts schools diners
and on the streets nationwide 50 years
later an Asian American reporter for the
same newspaper that published the
original model minority story is told to
go back to his country that’s because
model minority is a deceptively
beneficial stereotype
while it is kinder than other racial
stereotypes and has brought some success
academically and professionally that
success is based on a narrowly defined
scope based on what society deems to be
appropriate
for a minority quiet non confrontational
and respectful of authority it flattens
us 19 million people across dozens of
countries into one demographic mush it
highlights the few of us that have
reached this narrow success while
dismissing the others still caught in
the minority struggle worst of all with
a single stroke it shuts us up when we
march for social change when we share
our stories when we ask where are our
actors who are more than just kung-fu
sidekicks
where are our chefs who cook more than
noodles tossed in soy sauce and sriracha
I don’t even like sriracha
where are our writers our artists our
leaders the model minority label hands
the rest of America an easy rebuttal you
Asians are doing so well what do you
have to complain about because to talk
about being asian-american is to
navigate the delicate balance of all of
these social issues without quite
frankly pissing anyone off we are
American but not quite enough because we
still feel foreign in a place that we
call home some of us have reached
academic and professional success but
only on a narrowly limited scope and
with the need to work twice as hard to
reach the same end point we are modeled
but only by a white man
socio-politically motivated definition
and therein lies the problem since the
first boatload of asian-americans
arrived on our country’s western shores
where we fit in American society has
been defined for us by other people our
Asian American story is not an easy one
to tell nor is it easy to understand it
is individually and culturally specific
it is convoluted and nuanced and
sometimes even we can’t make sense of it
but it needs to be told and told by us
the Asian Americans when I look around
me when I look here I see my neighbors
my colleagues my friends my mother my
sister I see before me a nation of
stories waiting to be told we are here
to reclaim our Asian American story to
retire every term from Yellow Peril to
model minority we are here to define
where we fit in our words in our way to
color this American story thank you
[Applause]
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