gbm: Asian Identity

Comics:
http://www.arcamax.com/zits/s-244956-944987
http://secretidentities.org/preview.pdf

Are these accurate representations of our identity?

-Most Asians from my school grew up in White communities, usually 2nd or 3rd generation; their parents aren’t so pushy about school. These kids don’t do as well in school as these stereotypes portray.

What makes up your identity? Do you identify yourself as Asian?

-being part Asian was a distinguishing factor—there weren’t many other mixes. By recognizing the Asian part of myself, that was the thing that made me special, the thing I could connect to that nobody else had.

-Your identity is constantly changing.

-Heritage and the environment you grow up in plays a part. Everyone in my family calls me American, not Asian American, because compared to them, I’m not very Asian.

-because I’m half European, everyone expected me to speak English. I feel really awkward now whenever I need to articulate a lot in English. Eurasians are discriminated against in Hong Kong by traditional, local people. That was difficult because I never had to identify with my American half.

-I constantly have to battle for and define and defend myself and my identity.

-I came when I was four. I thought of myself as Asian but different from my parents. If I had kids, I would teach them my native dialect. I never had big problems, but a lot of my friends did—they grew up here, and people still expect them to speak other languages.

-I think it’s what you make of it. If you want to improve your language, you can. But if you don’t want to, that doesn’t mean you’re not Asian American, that doesn’t mean you’re not “Asian enough.”

So then does being Asian even matter? Is it even important to our identity?

-Other people make it a big deal. Identity is just something that outside people give you. You’re never really conscious of your own self until you see another person.

-Everyone’s had an identity imposed upon them. But that gives you another reason to claim your own identity and make it heard.

How do you feel when an identity is imposed upon you?

-Identity gets switched depending on what environment you’re in.

-Identity also gets exploited sometimes.

-Whenever I was in school as a kid, people would speak random words at me and call it Chinese, or run away from me because they said I knew karate, or they would want to be with me in class because they thought I was good at math. If people are going to impose things on you no matter what you do, how is it possible to ever change anything?

-Why do you even have to fight for anything? Your actions speak loudly.

-The imposed identity is stereotypes and racist comments. How can you not do anything? The civil rights movement did not happen in a night. It’s always those few people who keep pushing.

-I didn’t start thinking about identity until college. It didn’t hit me that other people were trying to racially identify me.

Next week’s topic meeting: Hapas.