Anonymous | nationality: Canadian | ethnicity: Filipino
“Yellow”.
To be honest the word ‘yellow’ doesn’t trigger anythingin me, maybe
it’s because I’m a bit too dark to be called “yellow.”That doesn’t mean
that I haven’t felt like a target of racist behaviouror microagressions,
it’s just those things have not really involved peoplemaking fun of my
skin colour.
“Asian”.
Personally I think it would be hard to define whatan “Asian” person is. I
feel like most people in North America or Europe wouldidentify more
with a pan-Asian identity based on a shared experiencegrowing up as
first or second generation immigrants in a predominantlywhite country.
And that same experience probably wouldn’t reflectthe experiences of
people who grew up in Asia where people there wouldgrow up most
likely as the majority.
It’s Hard to define who is Asian because how raceis visualized and
socially acted upon is heavily based on the culturethat person grew up
in, for instance while people in the UK would haveno trouble thinking
of people of Indian descent as Asian, people in NorthAmerica might
not because they don’t for the stereotypical imageof what an “Asian”
person looks like in the North American collectiveimagination.
So I guess what I’m saying is that identifying asAsian would only
happen if the person decides to take up that particularidentity or if
society kinda forces that person to take up that identitybased on
socioeconomic, cultural or religious factors.
Ethnicity|part1.
Ethnically, may background is Filipino.
I don’t really feel anything special in regards tomy ethnicity, it doesn’t
engender any feelings of pride or patriotism or anythinglike that. In
reality I heavily identify more with my citizenship(Canadian) than my
ethnic background. What I tell people is that my overallvalues and
belief system align more with Canadian values thanFilipino values.
I know about the culture per se, like I can speakthe language, I know
the food, and I’ve participated in some of the traditionalfestivals and
stuff but I don’t feel part of it, if that makes sense.
I guess I see it as a facet of myself, but not themost important part of
who I am.
One of the most annoying aspect of it all is whenI travel abroad or I
guess when I’m in Canada and people have a difficulttime accepting it
when I say I’m Canadian and instead push back andask something
along the lines of, “but where are you really from?”
Ethnicity|part2.
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