In the image, Necib is poised, strong, beautiful, and unapologetic. She belongs there: both her skilled feet and her painted hands. I thought of the young athlete I'd been and wished I could have seen something similar when I was still a child.
Why not just give everyone the benefit of the doubt? Wouldn't it be better if you just assumed that most people have genuinely good intentions? Educate them. Kindly. Patiently. And SMILE ! :)
You know how "the customer is always right"? That phrase takes on a whole new meaning when you get inappropriate questions about your racial and ethnic background in your place of employment.
She probably meant no offense; she just forgot her manners or, more likely, slipped and gave voice to the truth she believes, the truth that lives in her head. Unlike her, I didn't have the luxury of forgetting myself or my place.
American society is always interested in what makes us Asian; it is rarely, if ever, interested in what makes us American. If no one understands what can happen when that second half of the term is stripped from us, no one can keep the injustice committed against Japanese Americans from being committed against other communities.
Noah is a multiracial Korean American. Nicole is a Korean American adoptee with multiracial kids. They both have a large number of white relatives and, to date, have not managed to turn a single one of them even a little bit Asian.
Regrettable Things Our White Relatives Have Said to Us, Or Why Having an Asian Person in Your Family Does Not Make You "Less White"
1. At first it’s probably not obvious that you are their only nonwhite friend. Maybe you can’t remember them hanging out with any people of color except for you, but you don't know all the people they know. All those tiny thumbnails of white faces, commenting on their political status updates and praising their selfies on Facebook -- that’s Facebook, what can it really tell you about someone's life? Sure, you might go over to your friend's place for…
