“I mean, it’s just like…to White people, I’m Asian, but to Asian people, I’m White.”
Considering the way most American University students dress after the first few weeks dwindle down into academic stress, Josh Lin stands out in a crowd; he showed up at Einstein’s Bagel and Bros in a button-up, waistcoat and tie. After ordering (a blueberry bagel with cream cheese for me, a plain bagel with peanut butter and jelly for him), we sat down together and got comfortable. Initially, I had been unsure how to talk to him about his cultural identity; he’s half Taiwanese, half-White American, and I didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. However, Josh brought up his racial identity while we talked about the places he’d lived, and the conversation went in a different direction that I had initially assumed. “It’s really weird. When I moved to China, I was the only White person at my high school,” he mused, scraping peanut butter onto his bagel with a wooden coffee stirrer. “I felt like I would finally fit in after being an Asian kid in America, but no one in China could tell I was half” (Lin). As soon as I started asking him questions about this, I realised I had automatically read him as Asian even though I knew he was …show more content…
However, he didn’t seem optimistic about the future when I asked; even at the Asian-American Club at American University, he hadn’t been able to fit in with the American-born full Asian people in the club. As he described his experiences, he’s said it’s affected his mental health and his loneliness. While he says he’s experienced racism, it’s difficult for him to relieve his stress with other people because no one experiences it quite the way he does. Also, he feels uncomfortable reaching out to others about his mental health; he says he doesn’t want to feel like a
Considering the way most American University students dress after the first few weeks dwindle down into academic stress, Josh Lin stands out in a crowd; he showed up at Einstein’s Bagel and Bros in a button-up, waistcoat and tie. After ordering (a blueberry bagel with cream cheese for me, a plain bagel with peanut butter and jelly for him), we sat down together and got comfortable. Initially, I had been unsure how to talk to him about his cultural identity; he’s half Taiwanese, half-White American, and I didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. However, Josh brought up his racial identity while we talked about the places he’d lived, and the conversation went in a different direction that I had initially assumed. “It’s really weird. When I moved to China, I was the only White person at my high school,” he mused, scraping peanut butter onto his bagel with a wooden coffee stirrer. “I felt like I would finally fit in after being an Asian kid in America, but no one in China could tell I was half” (Lin). As soon as I started asking him questions about this, I realised I had automatically read him as Asian even though I knew he was …show more content…
However, he didn’t seem optimistic about the future when I asked; even at the Asian-American Club at American University, he hadn’t been able to fit in with the American-born full Asian people in the club. As he described his experiences, he’s said it’s affected his mental health and his loneliness. While he says he’s experienced racism, it’s difficult for him to relieve his stress with other people because no one experiences it quite the way he does. Also, he feels uncomfortable reaching out to others about his mental health; he says he doesn’t want to feel like a