From a very young age, I understood I was different from the rest of my family. I was adopted from China. I was Chinese and they were all Caucasian. I never thought much of it until I started school. All the little kids treated me differently. I know it sounds like I'm bullshitting you because Asians are the "model minority" but that statement is nothing more than a lame excuse to ignore Asian racism. Everyone loved to point out how short I was (because apparently all Asians are short), or how every other East Asian looked like me and we had to be related. A girl once decided to try and scare me and said that in America, the heart of a Chinese person is a delicacy and people in the USA eat Chinese people. By the time I was in fourth grade, I resented being Chinese. My mother tried to get me to dress as Mulan for Halloween but I would refuse and choose sleeping beauty. I wanted nothing to do with my home country. I told everyone I knew that I was Polish and Swedish, just like my mother was. To this day, I want to be something else, terribly. I'm embarrassed to be East Asian. Everyone assumes that I'm submissive and this obedient little girl because I'm Asian. The boys at my school call me Ling Ling and Ching Chong and refuse to learn my name, no matter how many times I tell them. People dismiss everything I do that I do well and chalk it up to me being Asian. "It doesn't count, you're Chinese". Every achievement of mine is discounted, even by my friends because I'm Chinese. There are only two trains of thought for my appearance as well. Either, I can't be pretty because I'm East Asian, or I'm a fucking sex toy because I'm East Asian. No one wants to call me pretty. People either say I'm ugly or sexualize me like I'm some doll. And there's nowhere I can turn to talk about this. Asian racism is actively ignored and people say it doesn't exist because of the stupid rumor that we're the "model minority". Well people hate when we don't speak English and tell us to go home to China/Japan/Korea/India/etc. A teacher in a school in New Jersey once told every Korean student in her class to raise their hand, then said she hates Koreans. If she had said Hispanic or black, this would have been national headline news in the world of racism. But because Koreans are who she hates, people don't even seem to care. Hollywood once outright stated they don't want to hire Asians because they "aren't expressive". Again, if any other ethnicity was used, the world would've boycotted Hollywood. But because we're Asian, well Fuck us, right? Everyone loves to assume I eat dog and cat. If I could do it over, I wouldn't be born Chinese. Because we still face racism in the USA, but people refuse to even address us.
Now, I'm not saying we're complete victims that have done nothing wrong. Asian countries are known for being anti-Black, homophobic, and stigmatize mental illness which is absolutely disgusting on so many levels, but not every Asian is like that. I am a pansexual nonbinary with depression, anxiety and ADD, and my friends span all ethnicities. I wish so badly we could make Asian countries more accepting, but not everyone is like that. And Asians do face racism the same way as every other minority. Hollywood refuses to represent us, people call us racial slurs, assume hurtful stereotypes, and hate us because of our ethnicities.
Also, as a side note, Asia is a very large continent consisting of 48 countries, not just Japan, China, and the Koreas. So next time you meet someone Indian, Russian, Pakistani, Vietnamese, etc. It'd be wise not to tell them they aren't Asian because according to the geography of our planet, they are. Where do you think Vietnam is located, Australia?
