How the Model Minority Myth Numbs Us from Trauma

When the shootings in Atlanta happened, there was a part of me that didn’t want to see it as a race issue. I wanted to see it as a misogyny issue, or a church purity culture issue, or a gun violence issue (and all of which, by the way, are very relevant), but I didn’t want to see it as a race issue. I didn’t want to use the race card, so to speak. Because if I did, then I would have to admit that there is a systemic pattern of discrimination against Asian Americans, and I would put myself in a position of asking for help, and this would run against the model minority myth.

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Get Off the Bench

As an Asian-American, I said that this was not my problem, not my fight. But this summer, by the grace of God, something changed. I realized how much I had fallen short in seeking to love those around me who did not look like me, didn’t go to the same churches as me, but who are also made in the Imago Dei.

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Asian American Complicity in Racism

We Asian Americans might not say it out loud, but many of us have internalized a racist, reductionist history. We believe that the way to success is to work hard, and we pride ourselves in having done just that. We came to this country with nothing, speaking a foreign language, and we worked hard, saved money, and we achieved the American dream. And so when we look at the status of African Americans, we dismissively assume that they didn’t work as hard as we did, and we just conclude that only they are to blame.

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