My story of growing up Asian-Australian. I was born in Australia. Growing up in an area where there was so little racial diversity, made it hard to connect my ‘rich and exotic Vietnamese heritage’ with my mainstream Australian self. Used to being the only Asian in the room, I was self-conscious at the first thing people noticed me about me was that, I was of colour. I quickly realized that there were two options for me. Accept the stereotypes that surrounded me, or accept the whiteness that surrounded me. There was no in between… For me, I was always felt self-conscious at being good at things because I was Asian, not because I worked hard. It meant that my identity was formed at the fact that I was different. And it meant that I thought being Asian was the only special thing about me.
Interactions with others are quiet amusing, but often times they made me want to reject my own culture, as I wanted to fit in. I distanced myself as much as possible from the Asian stereotype and distanced myself from my culture. The worse part was that it worked… The more I rejected my Vietnamese culture, the more popular I became. They liked me more, as I was similar. In doing this, I became more confident as I knew we could relate to one another. But as I became more Aussie, I started losing my true self. And as much as I tried to fit in and be one of my classmates. I wasn’t. Slowly I was being whitewashed.
The truth is, the success of Asians are used by society to defend themselves against other people of colour as justification that racism doesn’t exist. What does this mean for us? It means we aren’t accepted as we aren’t similar enough, but we aren’t rejected as we aren’t different enough. Often, I feel like I should speak out. But once I do, I’m told I’m too sensitive or I get offended easily. Now I know it might be hard to accept that you might be part of the problem, that we all might be part of the problem. But, thats the first step into creating positive changes in our communities. So, instead of guiding you step by step on not being racist to Asians and all people of colour, I will let you decide what to take from this.
Police brutality is in Canada as well. I am a Native American woman from Canada and I wanted to share. seeing all the information that you have on Indigenous people of Australia and African Americans I was hoping you could spread information about police brutality towards Native Americans As well. In Canada there has been racism toward Native Americans since Europeans first began to colonize. When the euopeans first came to North America and met the Natives they thought they were in India which is why we used to be called Indians and why that name is still in our official legislation today. They also thought us “savages” and that they had to save us. Which is how we ended up in Residential school almost a century later. Indian residential schools were designed to ”take the Indian out of the child” and kids were regular physically, verbally, and sexually assaulted. they were also deprived of their first language and beaten for not speaking English. there is a video called Powwow at Duck Lake that discusses the issues Native American people have been facing for centuries. If you don’t believe there is police brutality search Chief Allen Adam. CBC news has the full video off his violent Arrest.
Hey Mya, thanks for sharing this with us. This is a really interesting topic and we would love to write a page and include it on our site. “It’s our time” is all about spreading awareness and educating people about different social injustices occurring in our society. We’re incredibly sorry that you and other Native Americans had to endure and are still facing acts of discrimination and we hope that more people become aware of this and make a change! We’ll get to writing and as soon as we’ve uploaded it, we’ll announce it on our instagram page: “@itsour.time“. You can also sign up to be a member on our site to keep in touch with us. Once again, thank you. - Shan
My story of growing up Asian-Australian. I was born in Australia. Growing up in an area where there was so little racial diversity, made it hard to connect my ‘rich and exotic Vietnamese heritage’ with my mainstream Australian self. Used to being the only Asian in the room, I was self-conscious at the first thing people noticed me about me was that, I was of colour. I quickly realized that there were two options for me. Accept the stereotypes that surrounded me, or accept the whiteness that surrounded me. There was no in between… For me, I was always felt self-conscious at being good at things because I was Asian, not because I worked hard. It meant that my identity was formed at the fact that I was different. And it meant that I thought being Asian was the only special thing about me.
Interactions with others are quiet amusing, but often times they made me want to reject my own culture, as I wanted to fit in. I distanced myself as much as possible from the Asian stereotype and distanced myself from my culture. The worse part was that it worked… The more I rejected my Vietnamese culture, the more popular I became. They liked me more, as I was similar. In doing this, I became more confident as I knew we could relate to one another. But as I became more Aussie, I started losing my true self. And as much as I tried to fit in and be one of my classmates. I wasn’t. Slowly I was being whitewashed.
The truth is, the success of Asians are used by society to defend themselves against other people of colour as justification that racism doesn’t exist. What does this mean for us? It means we aren’t accepted as we aren’t similar enough, but we aren’t rejected as we aren’t different enough. Often, I feel like I should speak out. But once I do, I’m told I’m too sensitive or I get offended easily. Now I know it might be hard to accept that you might be part of the problem, that we all might be part of the problem. But, thats the first step into creating positive changes in our communities. So, instead of guiding you step by step on not being racist to Asians and all people of colour, I will let you decide what to take from this.
Police brutality is in Canada as well. I am a Native American woman from Canada and I wanted to share. seeing all the information that you have on Indigenous people of Australia and African Americans I was hoping you could spread information about police brutality towards Native Americans As well. In Canada there has been racism toward Native Americans since Europeans first began to colonize. When the euopeans first came to North America and met the Natives they thought they were in India which is why we used to be called Indians and why that name is still in our official legislation today. They also thought us “savages” and that they had to save us. Which is how we ended up in Residential school almost a century later. Indian residential schools were designed to ”take the Indian out of the child” and kids were regular physically, verbally, and sexually assaulted. they were also deprived of their first language and beaten for not speaking English. there is a video called Powwow at Duck Lake that discusses the issues Native American people have been facing for centuries. If you don’t believe there is police brutality search Chief Allen Adam. CBC news has the full video off his violent Arrest.