#AsiansAreVisible #StandWithAsians #StopAsianHate
Yes, my real name is So-Young. I was born in Washington, DC, raised in Brooklyn and was educated in the US. My name? Yes, I’m of Korean descent. And I’m an American. I have never been any other nationality.
As an Asian-American with a Korean name, I list ‘US Citizen’ on my resume as most Asian-Americans use a more ‘Western’ name to fit in. Why do I have to do this? Because in the US, Asians have been expected to fit in and not stand out — with our names, our opinions and our voices. We are often pushed aside for promotions because we don’t speak up for ourselves and self-advocate. When I was at McKinsey, I did some research on the percentage of East Asians who started as Associates and ended up as Directors and the fallout rate was staggering and statistically significant. There are many reasons for this from systemic issues to cultural norms to unconscious bias (even among Asians) so it’s not an easy challenge to solve.
I grew up in Brooklyn where my closest friends were Lisala, Tanisha, Anita, Peter, Vincent, Wayne — Black, Hungarian, Jewish, Hispanic, Gay, Straight and some Asians too. We were the mini-UN and we had no idea and didn’t care. We were friends. We went to each others’ homes, ate each others’ food and met each others’ families. We laughed together and cried together. This was critical to shaping my view of people who are different. We saw each other as humans.
Growing up, I got my fair share of ‘ching chong’ and people slanting their eyes at you. You would either ignore them or fight back and risk getting hurt or killed if they had a gun. So most of the time, I would ignore them. I don’t really recall the specific incidents because it was a part of life so I disregarded them. That’s sad. It was just normal to be taunted for my race. That was then.
Now it’s 2021. 6 Asian women were brutally murdered and there have been 3,800 reported crimes against Asian-Americans mostly aimed at women. Anti-asian hate crimes have increased by 1900%. My guess is that it’s 10x higher as many Asians don’t report. Think about these stats especially during Covid when many are not even going out. They are staggering.
Have we had enough yet?
