What does Asian American mean to you?

Well, I’m gonna be honest. I have no idea what Asian American Culture means... Its kinda like, I’m full Filipino and I don’t even really know what’s up with my culture. Like when Independence Day is or like, our certain superstitions and customs, I really don’t even know the backdrop to those kinna things. It’s really on me though, because even though neither of my family members taught me about the Filipino culture and even though teachers weren’t up to the challenge of teaching Filipino history, I could’ve done something about it and educate myself. And I guess that’s how it is now a days... I can go up to anyone and just ask them the history of their heritage and I bet you a lot won’t be able to give me the answer. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong... But I have yet to BE proven wrong you know. I guess it’s just the western movement. Everyone’s caught up in the American dream that everything is just "Americanized" cuz that’s the reality and the ‘hype’.. Fuck the hype man, it sucks that everything got so fusionized that we don’t know what the original ingredients are... I mean, don’t get me twisted its cool that mixing different cultures and people together is happening. it’s just that we lost sight of where we all come from and I don’t really like that. Let’s try to keep culture alive... And not just by celebrating it but moreover by gaining the knowledge as to why we're celebrating... and acknowledging how beautiful it is. EMBRACE EVERY SINGLE CULTURE!

But if I had to give a straight “ANSWER THE QUESTION” based opinion on what Asian American means to me, I’d have to basically say inspiration leaders.. family, friends, determination, dignified, .. all those things combined into one identity. From my knowledge, I heard boundless stories of the struggle to get to America and I learned how focused these Asian Americans were to try and reach this goal of getting to America JUST TO LIVE. And not only was it a struggle to get here, but a struggle to stay here. With racisim thrown into the picture, with culture shock, with finding jobs that were limited due to qualifications, etc… to me, I have such respect for this “Asian- American” identity, which we (the Asian-American race) all hold within ourselves, even if we didn’t personally experience these things because somewhere in our blood line has.


*First published on personal blog; xanga.com/x3_gelline on sept 4 2008. Copied &extended here on blogspot (=