Talking to my Toddler about Race
Since I moved to the United States 16 years ago, race has been a topic that is important and intimate to me. When I started my first part-time job as an after school counselor in West Philadelphia, I was baffled by the inequalities I witnessed. I could not make sense of the drastic difference between…
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Challenge Our Own Social Relationships to Create Racial Justice
Racial justice has become a popular topic in recent years. While it is important for folks from all social positions to continue to work on issues around racial justice in the political and cultural realms (e.g. grassroots mobilizing/organizing; culture preservation/production), it is equally, if not more important that we evaluate and challenge our own social…
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The Sickness that Model Minority Gives Us
One day last year, my then-20 year-old stepson came home and told me that his friend committed suicide and passed away. I didn’t know how to react to it. I was shocked, terrified, and for reasons that I cannot comprehend, I felt angry. Then, I felt guilty for feeling angry, for not showing enough sympathy,…
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For Asians, Normalizing Mental Health Is More Than Raising Awareness
How intergenerational trauma, family conflicts, and racism block us from healing Most recently, I was tasked with creating a community program that provides mental health care for and addresses the impact of racism/xenophobia and COVID-19 on the Chinese immigrant families in the city. For the past two months as everyone scrambled to find and adjust…
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Dear Asian People
Dear Asian people: I hear a lot about “what can we do to help.” So, here are my 2 cents: 1. Know our common struggles as well as differences. While Asian Americans do experience interpersonal racism on a daily basis (e.g. discrimination, micro-aggressions) and some of us have carried the painful history of institutional racism…
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What I Need From the World As an Asian Woman and What You Can Do
My 4 year-old daughter and I made this together as I continue to process what’s happening in the Asian American community. She chose the colors and helped color the hair. She chose blue for the hair because she said it looks like ocean. Three weeks ago when I learned about the Atlantic shooting in which…
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