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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-08-28
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkSkKYmoOeQ
tell your story scenes that calm organized by students headaches youth and as did see so I was walking home one day minding my own business like any other angsty teenager in their sophomore year in high school with my ear buds on listening to the tunes of the time men subtly a group of five middle schoolers completely surround me and I just stand there Danes I had
no idea what was going on then they start badgering me with insults one boy reviews as neat how do you how another one is asking how my calculus homework was another is asking if I had rice for lunch that day different stereotypes were being thrown at me but I just stand there not really sure as to how I'm supposed to respond when they saw that I
wasn't reacting to the engineering the meet some passing comment on how Asian and serious I was for not being able to take a joke and walked away after the last I was finally taken out of my stupor what in god's name just happened after I got over it the irritation the disbelief the discomfort I began to realize that there was a problem and the problem didn't
just come from from the fact that five middle schoolers withdrawing racial slurs at me but more so from the fact that he's middle schoolers were also Asian let that sink in for a second these middle schoolers or making fun of me for being Asian and making fun of our heritage and culture as if it wasn't there as but what scared me the most was that I
saw myself within them I saw their attempts of pushing away their heritage and culture as far away as possible as a reflection of my own struggles that I went through starting their age and continue to face throughout high school now I believe the source of this struggle is the lack of Asian representation within the media and the curriculum because the Asian American community has been considered
the invisible minority for far too long because despite the fact that we are present within the American culture were often disregarded during the discussion of race and overlooked by both white people and people of color when we are seen however it's only through the lens of prejudices and stereotypes even illusion Americans themselves are passive towards this end accurate portrayal to the point in which we take
part in making fun of ourselves first let's talk about the media let it be in the comfort of our home was going through our phones or in the car listening to the radio we're always somehow engaging with the media I am bombarded with information after information about a Mary out of topics when we hear something over and over again we internalize it and we begin to
view it as the truth so going up I loved to watch TV here I did my absolute best to spend as much of my time in front of it even if and where to watch those reruns of those awfully boring shows but as I would switch it through different channels the same thing would appear there were no Asians because of this slowly without even realizing it
my definition of what being a typical American bent was to be white and I'm sure you've realized by now I'm not white I'm Chinese so I grew up in this proposed to gray area not really knowing as to where I stood I wasn't exactly Asian because the culture outside of my home wasn't but I by my definition Ben was an American so what I did was
that I tried my best to be you white I did whatever I could to just fit in and be deemed as cool and normal even if it was at the price of my own culture my own identity and my own happiness now people may argue but there is representation have you not seen mulatto rush hour well I have two things to say that first with the
exception of extremely small number movies and TV shows tend to only have one Asian American supporting character if any at all each playing to the same story if it was a high school setting there enough nerds in the back of AP calc class who always got straight days if it was in a business setting there either the janitors with heavy accents or just another socially awkward
worker in the background that's it these were the only stir with only stories about the Asian American experience that people were exposed to and sadly these became my definition of what being Asian meant and I heated it these stereotypes only made me embarrassed to be myself now secondly with the little representation that we do have well the only of song east Asians meaning Chinese Japanese and
Korean yes I understand that there is so much more to Asia than these three countries that all these people are being left out so me and well there is barely announced Asian representation within the media because a little now we do have her only of some Asians now the issue of representation isn't limited to the media either it is prevalent in schools as well the purpose
of education isn't just to teach us how atoms bond or how to find a theme of the poem but rather it's about the practical skills we gain so that we can apply them to society and better understand the world around us education gives us the power to question society and acknowledge its faults with this in mind there needs to be more representation to help fight preconceived
notions them many people including Asian Americans themselves have towards Asians so not a single story that pushes many Asian Americans away from their heritage finally be destroyed by increasing representation we hope Asian Americans from a younger age to feel more included within the conversation and to become more comfortable with themselves we read so many books in English and history classes we're only talking about the white
experience it rarely do we will learn about the Asian or Asian American experience until we reach our high school years by that point many have already internalize the fact that we simply aren't part of the conversation we feel as if we're only supposed to be part background I have friends who feel uncomfortable when everything Asian experience is even mentioned within classes simply because they're not used
to their culture being brought up within a classroom setting they have disassociated their lifestyles at home what do I sales at school feeling as if it's normal for classes to never talk about their own lives but this shouldn't be the case we need to be more exposed to the incredible stories such as the noble Japanese soldiers that continue to fight for America during World War two
or the first Asian American voted into Congress in nineteen fifty seven an Indian American dully song when we are more exposed to the stories we can replace for complete attitude than many people that many people associate with the title the invisible minority and the model minority we can finally understand that huge impact we had on America in the past and the enormous power we have to
make change so how can we change this discrepancy this lack of representation in the media and curriculum so that the future generations can have the confidence and courage to raise their voices so no more than one story is being heard my solution we as Asian Americans need to renew forum representation on our own terms we understand that Asian narrative the best since we limit so we
should be the ones just to decide how we should be represented the little amount of representation we do have reflects on how our current society views us which you may not be completely false but it's not even close to the whole story once we take the counter narrative into our own hands we reform Asian representation to more positive we've reflect our own experiences the more we
talk about our passions and our experiences the more it Asian Americans can feel that they have a right to be included in the conversation but increasing representation we feel like we no longer have to be invisible so that the future generations don't have to go through the same struggles I had to go to they don't have to feel that they have to identify themselves as only
