I’ve seen and heard a resurgence in the last few days of the concept of “we are all one human race,” and while this is a lovely ideal, it is not, sadly the reality forced upon me by others. The latest incident happened while volunteering at a vaccination site this week. After completing his check in forms and handing them to me, the man asked me if he could ask me a question of a somewhat personal nature. I said sure and then wondered what I had just agreed to. He asked me what I thought about all this talk about people hating Asians. I think I rolled my eyes and said something along the lines, “it’s something.” He interpreted my vague response as alignment with his views and began to launch into comments about how he knew it was all a liberal hoax. I shut him down immediately and told him discrimination against Asians is real. I have been on the receiving end of it. I’ve felt it. I’ve known it.
He was shocked and dismayed. His first action was to apologize. Then he asked me why. “Why would anyone do that to you? Why would they discriminate against Asians, we love Asians. Your people have done so much for this country.”
These comments stung to the point they still pop up and hurt me a couple of days later. I sure hope my people have done a lot for this country since my people fought in the American Revolution to create this Nation. Through his words, he communicated very clearly how he doesn’t see me as American. I’m Asian to him. “My people” are from some foreign place, not from here. “My people” aren’t Americans, we are others who happen to live in America. With comments like that, it doesn’t matter how long “my people” live here, how American our accents may be, how pale skinned we are, how our ancestry may go all the way back to the birth of this nation. To some, we will never be American “enough.”
It hurts.
It also saddens me this person didn’t have any other Asian in his life he could talk to about this. He had to find one in the wild. Yet, there is hope. While he may have started down the “liberal hoax” path, he didn’t stay there. He quickly diverted and accepted my reality as real. Trust me when I say this is extremely affirming and a nice change of pace. Also, he asked. He was interested in dialogue. It was a conversation. I did tell him while I may have experienced my share of discrimination, I have also experienced a lot of love. Here’s to hoping love will win out, and here’s to actively loving each other and ourselves so it can.
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