Risa Goto | 21 | she/her | nationality & ethnicity:Japanese
“Yellow”.
When I think of yellow, I think of the sun, somethingwarm (the perfect
amount of warm that isn’t hot, but instead a comfortabletemperature)
something bright, and that glimmers/shines througheverything it
touches.
I was personally born in the summertime in Japan whenit starts to get
very warm, and so I identify strongly with the color,especially in terms
of how yellow is associated with the glistening summersun. I think in
terms of personality, I associate it with someonethat is outgoing,
well-liked, optimistic, and a little child-like. It’ssuch an
innocent/impure color for me.
In terms of how yellow is perceived as a skin color,I’ve never really
thought that it accurately represents the Asian communitybecause
well... we aren’t yellow-skinned. I personally thinkfor instance, that the
yellow color for the emoji isn’t too appealing/pretty,because i feel like
it’s such an overexaggeration of the stereotype.
Along with this, terms such as yellow fever that isintented to describe
those who have fetishes, sort of paints the imagethat the Asian people
being fetishized carries this disease that makes themlook overly
yellow and unattractive. Those who are fetishizedacquire a sort of
exaggerated yellow skinned image, whereas the onewho is fetishizing
doesn’t get any sort of negative associations, soIfeel like for me, the
color yellow has been tainted by how White peoplehave viewed Asians
historically.
“Asian”.
For me, being Asian is 1. identifying yourself assomeone who comes
from or has family from the “Asian continents” (India,Kazakhstan,
Mongolia, Philippines etc.) But this definition reliessolely on
appearance, so I like challenging myself to thinkthat 2. It’s like, more
flexible than that. Race is a construct anyways sothere isn’t really clear
cut boundary between who is Asian and isn’t basedon biology. I
believe those who share a similar culture that isumbrella’d under
“Asian” is considered Asian.
I think the Asian community, those who are sharingdistinct cultures,
decide who is Asian or not (seen internet groups likeSubte Asian
Traits), and I think anything from anecdotes, food(acquired taste),
clothing preferences, social etiquette, in additionto obvious factors like
language, or “ethnicity”brings Asian people tgth.
10