But why...

Julie Le

Week 9

ASA002 A01

11/14/2015

A common theme throughout from Professor Valverde’s paper about Mixed Race to determine the worth of a Mixed Vietnamese American seems to involve how far they are from the Vietnam War. A lot of the answers Professor Valverde brought up involved the idea of either holding back information or flaunting information in order to gain more credibility. As an Asian American, I find that to be incredibly difficult to be forced in a position where it’s better to hide part of my identity in order to be accepted more easily within my own community. I thought it was interesting that some folks had to hide certain parts of them like whether their mom or dad was Vietnamese or whether they were born in or outside of Vietnam otherwise they wouldn’t receive the same treatment as their multiracial counterparts. It’s ridiculous that even within their own community, where they’re supposed to receive full support and care, they are treated as differently as if they were an outsider. I was curious as to the fact that it seems the more “white” someone seems the more valuable they are because we live in a society where “white” is the default idea for “good.”

So my question is: What causes people to treat others differently over minor information when they share the same ethnicity and values? How do we navigate conversation around that to address this issue within our communities? Why do we so strongly critique our own people when we should be working with each other? Will we be able to reach a point when it’s okay to be what we identify as and not be compared to being “white?”