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.
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.