“Well, my parents came here legally.”
It’s a sentiment I’ve seen repeated over and over again in the comments section under videos of protesters exercising their First Amendment rights throughout Los Angeles by protesting federal immigration raids this week.
And the unfortunate reality? When you click into their profiles, many of these commenters share one key characteristic: They’re of Asian descent.
It’s both disappointing and shocking to see so many fellow first-generation Asian Americans whose parents were privileged enough to play by the “rules” distance themselves from immigrant families who weren’t.
But this is by design. Systemic white supremacy has aimed to pit people of color against each other in favor of gaining socioeconomic status — and it’s always worked, historically.
The concept of the “model minority” has haunted me ever since I found out what it was: the idea that, because Asian (specifically East Asian) people have lighter skin and a closer proximity to whiteness in other ways, that they are perceived as almost white.
We’re made to believe that if we keep our heads down, act studious and non-threatening, that maybe white America won’t look at us like we’re dangerous. That we might become one of them — even though they will never view us as such. That this feigned “acceptance” is worth turning our backs on other people in the Asian diaspora (read: darker-skinned Asians from Southeast and South Asia and the Middle East), Black, and brown people from other communities.
Many Asian immigrant parents came to this country with this mentality, and raised their American-born children to obey, to behave, to not make waves or be too loud or bring unnecessary attention to ourselves. Because then maybe we’ll be admitted to that college, invited into that boardroom, or allowed in that country club. But in reality, we’d never actually be in the inner circle as our most authentic selves.
Though first-generation Asian Americans have begun rebelling against the idea and have only gotten louder and prouder over time, the model minority myth is a chronic sickness that keeps coming back to poison the minds of younger generations. And it is this mentality that leads Asian Americans to leave ignorant, damaging words in the comments.
Of course, it isn’t just Asian Americans, but since this is my community, I feel called to address it. Distancing yourself from the struggle of humans who have every right to be here as the “pilgrims who discovered the new world” is exclusionary and only causes further divide between communities that have a lot more in common than we’re led to believe.
As so eloquently stated in a now-viral post on Instagram, “Our greatest blessings are the circumstances we are born into, including when and where we’re born. Our citizenship and place of residence is dumb luck, or often, a reflection of our parents’ sacrifices, but a privilege nonetheless. It is a privilege we aren’t owed or guaranteed, it is one borrowed in this lifetime. Check yourself before you judge acts of desperation you are so lucky to know nothing about.”
It seems like these Asian Americans in the comment section are quick to forget the courage their parents had to display so they could have their matcha bowls and pilates classes and Sephora hauls. So they could have freedom of speech — and the freedom to spread ignorance in the comment section.
I wear my “child of immigrants” badge proudly. My parents immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in the ’80s in pursuit of the “American Dream”: the sacrifice of leaving their home country, their native tongue, their families, all in search of an economically prosperous life and better opportunities for me and my siblings. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of their bravery to start over in a foreign nation.
And though they did immigrate legally, their path to citizenship and permanent residence was a long one, and assimilating to American culture did not stop them from experiencing racism and xenophobia — the very same racism and xenophobia that is now being targeted at Latinx Americans under the current administration. That their immigration was a choice and not a necessity to flee danger does not make them or me “better” or “more deserving.”
A beautiful, vibrant community is being torn apart and dehumanized in Los Angeles, a city that was built on the backs of immigrants. It would be an understatement to say that it has been painful watching videos of families getting separated, children being pulled off the stage of their kindergarten graduations, men and women being abducted from their places of work and shoved into the backs of unmarked vehicles by armed, masked, unidentifiable officers.
And it is not lost on me that, once this administration decides to move on from targeting the Latinx community, it is likely they will choose another to aim their hatred at.
It is in times like these that people of color (and more specifically, immigrants and children of immigrants) need to display solidarity and remember our humanity. It’s time to stand up and support our own — even if they don’t have the same background as we do.