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I run around with a lot of Asian-Americans here at school--last year they dragged me to the Asian Pacific American Association dance here at school where I was 1) the tallest woman in the room and 2) one of three white girls. For someone who has grown up in the PacNW, which is very white, that was a bit of a culture shock. But if there's one thing being friends with all of them has taught me, it's that they're all from very different places and generationally, there's always a different gap between them and where their ancestors are from--I am a first-generation American (no one ever guesses that one, as I'm white) on my father's side, and so many of their families have been here even longer than half of mine.
But I see the difficulties a lot of them face--the racial assumptions, the questions, etc. Once someone told my best girlfriend (a beautiful blend of Norwegian and Japanese blood), "wow, for an Asian, you speak English really well"--in my presence! I had to inform them that that is what happens when you are born and raised in the United States. Would they say the same thing to my father, who was born in the Netherlands? No, of course not--he's white.
One thing I found interesting in the article was the mention that because Asian-Americans are all from different backgrounds culturally they have a harder time unifying. That doesn't seem to be the case around these parts--my friends are from all over the place, and they all seem to get along fine. I'm thinking that might be something that went with their parents' generation, and that they all think just as most of you do--they're Americans, and nothing else should matter.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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