As an Asian American, I learned at a young age to suppress my emotions. Whatever I felt did not matter in the bigger context of what my family was doing in order for us to survive in America. I internalized that crying was always weak, and outwardly showing any negative feelings should not happen. InContinue reading “Unlearning emotional suppression”
Tag Archives: racism
As you rest in Golden Power, Michelle Alyssa Go.
我们是金的。我们是金的。 We are golden.We shine bright with our golden light. Our community shines bright with your light. You shine bright, Michelle Alyssa Go, as you rest in Golden Power. For my entire life I have taken the subway,Turning my head this way, then that wayWho will help if I call out hey, Who will help if someone wantsContinue reading “As you rest in Golden Power, Michelle Alyssa Go.”
Reframing the common question “Where are you from?”
Decolonize the idea that the question “Where are you from?” must be answered with a geographical location.
We are from what we say we are from, who we say we are from, where we say we are from, and anything we say we are from that is authentic to who we are.
We each have a multiplicity of identities, and we define for our individual selves if and how we want to respond to this question when we inevitably continue to be asked this throughout our lives.
Our Collective Humanity
Language matters. What we say matters.
For too long, we have relied on the societal equalizer of being part of “one human race” to evade conversations of race, racism, and systemic inequities.
To say that we are part of “one human race” simply does not suffice. The phrase “one human race” causes erasure of identities, dismissal of injustices, and gross generalizations of cultures and peoples.
We can no longer seek to only “equalize” ourselves in systems that perpetuate injustice.
Our language can be an act of resistance.
Golden Power
On the complexities of yellow and yellow peril, and offering an alternative: Golden Power.
Before Lunar New Year
We are more than Lunar New Year.
We are more than a Christmas meal.
We are more than 2020.
I “am”
None of what I “am” is new.
Immunity
Close your eyes. Take a moment to envision an American person.
Now open your eyes.
It isn’t me.
Is it you?
America’s Unwanted Daughter
“Yellow Peril.”
“The Wuhan Virus.”
“The Chinese Virus.”
“Chink.”
“Cough into your elbow.” (Comes closer) “I SAID COUGH INTO YOUR ELBOW!” (Repeats multiple times in a train between stations, so I cannot get out).
“Get away from me.”
– What people have directly said to me on the street
COVID-19 is most definitely changing my experience as an Asian American. When I first wrote about the coronavirus “back in February” (so… just a month ago), I had no expectation that my life would be where it is today. (Did anyone though?) What I shared on video with USAToday had a greater impact than I thought it would – for better, for worse, for everything in between.
Tired of Being Asian
I am a proud Asian American, a proud Chinese American, first generation raised in America, first to go to college and earn a Bachelor’s and Master’s, currently pursuing my doctorate, and just truly so proud of my culture and who I am. To many, and hopefully my family and in some ways even myself, I am the epitome of the American dream.
This is sadly not about that.
I want to detail what it has felt like to be an Asian person in America since the outbreak of coronavirus.
ALICE TSUI 徐晓兰 