Officially, the model minority myth is the belief that all Asians are naturally high achieving. Unofficially, it meant that my childhood was a constant barrage of jokes about having to go to Harvard and become a doctor or lawyer. It meant stepping into a room and knowing that people already made assumptions about me and…
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I sometimes come across scenes in movies or TV shows that make fun of Asian students’ obsession of getting As. The characters (usually white) would ecstatically celebrate getting a B, while their Asian peers look gloomy, if not depressed. Although years passed since I watched this sitcom, I still remembered the scene in which the…
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Joe Biden is officially the president-elect of the United States and is expected to be inaugurated next Jan. 20 of 2021. Many are optimistic for what the future holds as we approach the end of current president Donald Trump’s four year term and the “interesting” year that 2020 has been. Moving forward, one big question…
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Cultural assimilation (n.): the process in which individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society Cultural assimilation is a term that many immigrants from the APIDA community are all too familiar with. When I think of assimilation, the first thing that comes to mind is the experience…
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** Author’s Note on Community Terminology: there is an academic and cultural dispute over whether Filipino or Pilipino is best to describe the diaspora from the Philippines. In recognition of the indecision, F/Pilipino is used in this piece.** Arguably, the biggest plague of Asian America’s history is the image of being the model minority. This…
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1. Back when I was in elementary school, Mother used to pin up my hair with chopsticks—soft pink with cherry blossoms creeping along its narrow circumference. The silky threadlike strands of hair that hung from the top of my head never stayed up for longer than a few hours, or half a day at school.…
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