I can relate to her being negatively perceived as being “too white” or “too yellow” and find it interesting that she’s trying to be a “pale shade of yellow”. I think all too often we get caught up with binary identities, and so we grow frustrated when we don’t fit the norm of either one. But 1+1 does not necessarily equal to 2 (Bhabha anyone?). If anything, her absorbing qualities, traits, ideologies, etc. from both sides of the fence shouldn’t mean she’s “white-washed” or “too Asian” – rather, she and the rest of us have to acknowledge that the culmination of her experiences that’s pushed her to the boundaries of identity is the place in which a new interstitial identity is produced. She shouldn’t be judged as aligning herself to one preexisting/established identity, when in fact she’s just part of a new group of hybridized individuals…

…but that’s all too easy to say – we often think in binaries and often judge and perceive based on preexisting/established identities and labels, and we often try to preserve the pre-existing, when at the same time we’re trying to fight it and fend it off in defense of emerging identities that don’t fit the mold of the old. It’s difficult to negotiate and emerge beyond binaries and understand and accept your own identity when it feels like the whole world is thinking otherwise.

I can relate to her being negatively perceived as being “too white” or “too yellow” and find it interesting that she’s trying to be a “pale shade of yellow”. I think all too often we get caught up with binary identities, and so we grow frustrated when we don’t fit the norm of either one. But 1+1 does not necessarily equal to 2 (Bhabha anyone?). If anything, her absorbing qualities, traits, ideologies, etc. from both sides of the fence shouldn’t mean she’s “white-washed” or “too Asian” – rather, she and the rest of us have to acknowledge that the culmination of her experiences that’s pushed her to the boundaries of identity is the place in which a new interstitial identity is produced. She shouldn’t be judged as aligning herself to one preexisting/established identity, when in fact she’s just part of a new group of hybridized individuals…

…but that’s all too easy to say – we often think in binaries and often judge and perceive based on preexisting/established identities and labels, and we often try to preserve the pre-existing, when at the same time we’re trying to fight it and fend it off in defense of emerging identities that don’t fit the mold of the old. It’s difficult to negotiate and emerge beyond binaries and understand and accept your own identity when it feels like the whole world is thinking otherwise.

There’s a substantial Asian population in the Research Triangle area, and a comparatively large Southeast Asian population in my city. However, I was adopted, so growing up in the South has somewhat stunted my identity.

It’s weird to know that the mother I never knew was part of a wave of Vietnamese immigrants that came here for very politicized reasons. Everyone reads about historical trends in textbooks, but I don’t feel personally impacted by my people’s struggle. I understand, of course, the very real ramifications of prejudice in American society. But I don’t understand, at least on an intimate level, what my birth parents endured to get me here.

I really want to be involved in the community, however, and I feel that getting out of the South is probably my likeliest avenue for syncing up with the rest of the Asian American community.

There’s a substantial Asian population in the Research Triangle area, and a comparatively large Southeast Asian population in my city. However, I was adopted, so growing up in the South has somewhat stunted my identity.

It’s weird to know that the mother I never knew was part of a wave of Vietnamese immigrants that came here for very politicized reasons. Everyone reads about historical trends in textbooks, but I don’t feel personally impacted by my people’s struggle. I understand, of course, the very real ramifications of prejudice in American society. But I don’t understand, at least on an intimate level, what my birth parents endured to get me here.

I really want to be involved in the community, however, and I feel that getting out of the South is probably my likeliest avenue for syncing up with the rest of the Asian American community.

Thanks for posting this, Ernie, and thanks to those who posted for relating your experiences. I’m glad to see we’re not alone.

Thanks for posting this, Ernie, and thanks to those who posted for relating your experiences. I’m glad to see we’re not alone.