I’m a Korean American.
I’m Bengali American.
Chinese American.
Filipino American.
Chinese American.
I'm a 1.5 generation American, a third culture kid, and an Asian American.
I'm proud to be Asian American because this is the only face I have, so I might as well be proud.
As an Asian American, I struggled with everything and everyone.
And myself.
When I was younger, my mom would always pack me Filipino food for lunch at school, and
I never wanted to eat it in front of everyone because I just didn't want to go through having
to explain it to people.
People would ask like, “Oh, how come Asians always stick together?”
Growing up I would be embarrassed if it was a whole bunch of Asians outside the library,
and I'm like, “Oh my god, how Asian of us.”
I think for me there's always been this sort of struggle of being “too white” or “too
Asian,” “not white enough” or “not Asian enough.”
A lot of the conflict came from both sides.
My peers, people in my community.
My parents’ accents, or foreign food.
I have come to appreciate and understand how where I’ve been determines where I’m going
to go.
People definitely don’t ever think about people from Bangladesh
as being Asian.
They don't even think about people from Bangladesh.
Who really am I outside of these categories that people know?
I don't wear a hijab.
I used to, but it's my choice.
I'm covered inside and internally, I don't need that statement outside to show you that
I'm a Muslim.
When it comes to AAPI folks, there’s such a diversity of where we come from, and who
we are, and our family histories, and ties.
There are over 40 countries in Asia, and every family and every person is unique and different.
People are always telling me that I don't look like the stereotypical Bengali because
I don't look like a Bollywood
actress.
And I know that.
I look like me.
All Asians don’t look the same.
That microagressions stuff from even strangers like, “Ni hao,” “Where are you from?”
Why don’t you just say hi to me like you would with anyone else?
Dating guys whose goal was to date every Asian girl.
Don't fetishize Asian girls because we're not all the same.
“Oh, are you from the North or South?”
And I know that that's like a legitimate maybe curiosity, but if I am here then I'm probably
not from the North.
It's like people that are like, “Oh we give you a platform for Asian Americans” and
yet all it is, is these sort of lunchbox stories of saying, you know, “All I had growing
up was people not understanding me, the white kids didn't get me, they didn't think I was white.”
And I think that is a larger question of who do we want to accept us, and us accepting
ourselves first.
I started to really appreciate and value my Filipino heritage, when I started hearing
from my parents and my family how they uprooted their entire lives to build something new.
Gave me a whole different perspective.
I'm proud of being Chinese cause of the sacrifices my parents made, and their resilience to push
our culture forward.
Asian American, no hyphen, was created for us, by us, to claim our stories and our time.
There are so many different and diverse cultures to learn about and be excited about that we
shouldn’t narrow our viewpoint to just one or two cultures in Asia.
I am happy to be in America, and I want
Asian Americans to be able to be a part of all spheres of life and industry, and highlight
those voices that just don't often get included in the conversation.
We really are just like a whole rainbow of beautiful cultures.
People from the Asian and Pacific diaspora are not a monolith.
We're all so different and we have so many different stories to tell.
As immigrants, as children of immigrants, being ourselves is worthy and that we don't
need some kind of levels of success
pre-determined by somebody else to determine who we are and who we get to be.
I think that the most beautiful part about being human is that we’re all different.
I really don't know what to do.