accent which gives no hint of my ethnicity. I have had an extremely
social 20’s and my circle of friends have traditionallynot included other
Asian folks. I am not in the sciences and my personalityis fairly
bohemian.
I don’t like the stereotypes at all. I have workedhard in my formative
years to steer away from them (some of that work Iam trying to undo
now). They made a lot of my younger years harderand gave me unique
complexes than that of my non-Asian friends. Phraseslike ‘you’re hot
for an Asian’ or ‘you’re pretty social for an Asian’or ‘wow you’re not a
nerd’ reminded me of how, on first glance, most ofmy peers filed me
under a social category that North America had traditionallyframed as
‘harmless,’ ‘weak,’ or ‘undesirable.’
In terms of Asian Stereotypes that I share similaritieswith, I don’t know
that I fit into many at all. Maybe that I take myshoes off when I enter
a house? I feel like this should be normal and itboggles my mind that
not everyone does it.
A theoretical space without racism.
I feel like I would be much further along in lifeif racism didn’t exist.
There are so many areas in life that I could havelikely focused my
attention in other than ‘making up’ for being Asian. If racism didn’t
exist then I don’t think I would notice its absence,I think I would act
with privilege. My first thoughts would likely beabout how different it
was.
I think never being told to adopt a more Western soundingname to get
a job would be a great new feature. I think not havingevery
compliment be qualified with ‘for an Asian guy’ wouldbe pretty novel.
Tell.
In terms of casual conversation I wouldn’t talk abouthow being Asian
in Canada has affected my self esteem. Growing upthe media wasn’t
really great about its portrayal of us and I definitelyinternalized some
negative self images from that.
To someone.
Asia’s dope yo.
230