it is important to acknowledge that as a Westerner regardless of my
race I am already afforded certain privileges thatother Asian
identifying people do not.
it is admittedly difficult to conceptualize even ina theoretical space of
a place which is beyond racism however in I wouldlike to suggest a
few ideas.
at its simplest level this would involve being treatedas a normal
person. That would mean the end of microaggressions,the end of
fetishization, racialization and exoticization.
it would also involve the end of macroaggressionsincluding derogatory
statements, hate crimes and racialized state violence.
it would involve bringing an end to invisible societalbarriers which
prevent people from fully participating in our pluralisticdemocratic
society. it would involve mechanisms and laws to provideequal
opportunity in education and employment.
of course in this theoretical world beyond racismit would not only
include Asian people but other racialized minoritiesespecially bipoc
due to several historical in reasons white peoplein the west have been
allowed to accrue most of the economic wealth andpolitical power a
structure thatsbkinda hard to dismantle
This theoretical world without racism would also involvethe end of
economic inequalities which predominantly affect racializedminorities
in Western societies.
In all honestly, if I was able to live in such a placeit would feel
liberating As if I’m free to be me. But in all honestyit probably wouldn't
even be my life that would improve significantly.It’s my parents lives
who’d probably been a lot easier had they had livedin this idealized
world. They wouldn’t have had to work so hard andfor so long to work
their way from the bottom to middle-class as first-generation
immigrants.
Tell.
Honestly, there’s a lot of negative imagery associatedwith being a
Filipino that there are times where I can say thatI’ve done internalized
racism on myself, where as a kid and a teen I becameuncomfortable
being associated with anything Filipino, I wantedto assimilate to
Canadian culture as soon as possible, so I tried mybest to change my
accent, and I hated it when my mom would pack traditionallyFilipino
lunches for school.
To this day, it’s very complicated, on the one handI wish my reading
and writing skills were better, and I wish that whenI speak Tagalog (I
retained the language after moving to Canada) I wishI didn’t have such
a “white accent” as someone told me I sounded. AndI feel this weird
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