"Who" We Are, Not What

Cristina Musngi
Section 1
Week 9

In the article "Doing the Mixed-Race Dance: Negotiating Social Spaces Within the Multiracial Vietnamese American Class Typology" by Kieu Linh Valverde, the interactions of mixed Vietnamese-Americans and mono racial Vietnamese-Americans are analyzed, specifically by how mono racial Vietnamese-Americans try to classify multiracial Vietnamese-Americans. This piece was very interesting and eye-opening to me because I didn't not realize that there were certain "types" of mixed Vietnamese-Americans that people try to classify them as. I saw many similarities people classified other Vietnamese and how Filipinos try to classify Filipino-Americans. They both rate European-Asians that do not speak their native language as a sign of "superiority".

I feel that this a detrimental ideal because it puts less value on our own culture and traditions. By attempting to "whiten" ourselves, we diminish our own culture and past. I feel that everyone should stop asking people "what" they are and start attempting to understand "who" a person is before they make superficial judgements of a person.

Question: We see from the article that mono racial Vietnamese-Americans judge multiracial Vietnamese-Americans and try to categorize them based on their belief of a social hierarchy, however, do multiracial Vietnamese-Americans have certain typologies for their non mixed counterparts? And if not, could this have to do with their need for belonging into a community where mono racial Vietnamese-Americans are automatically a part of?