Birthday Tape Vibe: I was born in the USA
Sitting in the back of the Lyft, I chattered on about my mom’s nagging. She had heard about some crazy virus on the news. Mom wanted me to stock up a couple weeks of necessities (food, water and so on). Her warnings seemed a little over the top. At this time, COVID-19 was just starting to become news in the U.S. I was on the way to the Houston Rodeo with a friend. The new virus was the furthest thing from my mind. My Lyft driver was from a small town outside of where I grew up. He engaged in conversation throughout the Lyft ride. As I yammered on, he chuckled in the driver seat before saying, ” Well I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I heard it only impacts Asian people.”
My friend stared at me in disbelief. My Lyft driver clearly had no idea he was driving an Asian girl to the rodeo. I politely said, ” You know, I realize that you probably didn’t realize I am Asian from my slight southern twang. I also realize you have been focused on driving, but I want you to know viruses aren’t selective in what race they infect.”
So it began.
Each week, I heard more stories about the impact of Coronavirus on Asian American communities. Asian owned businesses were suffering across the board. People refused to eat in Asia town. Images of empty restaurants circulated various forms of media. My favorite Asian restaurants’ parking lots were empty long before the stay at home orders were put into place. Numerous other Asian owned businesses suffered economically long before the rest of small business owners.
Since COVID-19 began making headlines in the states, my family has experienced an uptick in racially driven confrontations. Mom is an essential worker at a major grocery store chain. A patron decided to push mom’s bakery cart and scream obscenities at her. My brother was grocery shopping and some “Karen” decided to tell him that she thought Chinese people were at fault for this. She told him we need to go back to where we came from. Oh Karen… there’s so much racism in that statement. I can’t even begin to peel apart those statements without being appalled that we even have to address such bigoted comments. Since then, my family and I have moved our shopping to InstaCart. We are protecting ourselves from more than the virus at this point. We are protecting ourselves from hatred and the hate crimes against Asian Americans that are surfacing across America.
This morning, I received a link to an OpEd piece written by John Cho. In the article, Cho makes a bold statement. Asian Americans are being reminded their belonging is conditional. I am sure this statement makes a lot of people extremely uncomfortable. Sadly, I am not uncomfortable with it. I am acknowledging it is true. Since I was a kid, my parents have been preparing me for the day that I would have to face a grim truth: being born in America doesn’t guarantee me fairness and equality.
I remember when my family applied to get our passports. Most families get their passports so they can take family vacations in different countries. Not mine. My dad insisted we get them so we can prove our U.S. citizenship if we were ever asked to leave. I thought his rationale was absurd, and I chocked it up to my dad’s Vietnam War PTSD. How could anyone ever make me leave? I am American. I was born here.
Then things started happening in my life that I couldn’t ignore. Back in 2008, I took a promotion where I moved to a town with less than 1% Asian population. Their overall diversity count was less than 10% total. My parents warned me leaving Houston wasn’t a good idea. They said leaving Texas for the portion of the country I was moving to, was an even worse idea. They said other parts of the country were less accepting. I ignored my parents and sported my rose tinted glasses as I got on the plane, ready for my new adventure. When I got there, I was greeted with a lot of glares. I chocked the glares up to it being a small town. They probably were wondering who this new person was.
Then I began to notice that every time I flew out of the airport, I was selected for special screening. The process didn’t include just a pat down or swabbing my hands. Each time, it included opening my suitcase and rummaging through my stuff. There was never a reason to inspect my suitcase, but they did it anyway. Aside from that town, I have only been selected for special screening maybe a handful of times. To put it in perspective, I have been flying for over 15 years. I was “specially screened” more times in that town than I have been in my totality of flying. Even after a year of living there, the glares didn’t stop. I decided I needed to make a change. I requested a transfer. When my employer refused to transfer me to a new location, I parted ways. I would not accept being racially profiled any longer.
I will spare you a recollection of all the other racial inequalities I have experienced. No matter how bad these experiences were, I continued to refuse that my being American was conditional. With all of the different social movements that have happened even in the last decade, I had faith that our generation was positioned for success much more than my parents’ generation. There had been so much progress in acceptance. There was no way we would revert to a less accepting mentality. Then came COVID-19. This pandemic is more than just a war on our health. It is a war on who we are as a human race.
Some people may not realize that we are fighting more than one war. It is not just a war to slow the spread. It is a war to test how far we have truly come as a nation. We have made progress, but we are still short of the goal. This morning, I posted a snippet of Cho’s article and some of my own commentary on my IG story. Most people will view it, and then they will disregard it. Some people will respond and say they are sorry I am encountering this. Some will even acknowledge it and tell me they would change it if they could.
On the contrary, you can change it. You can stand up for anyone you see being treated unfairly or unequally no matter their race. It takes more than acknowledgement to fix a problem. It takes making it known, peacefully, that there is no place in this world for hate. Put yourself in our shoes. How would you feel if you were told that you were less American because of your skin color? I hope that many of you who read this have never encountered that. While you may have never experienced this personally, you probably know someone who has. They probably have not shared their experiences with you.
We seldom talk about racial issues anymore because we assume it doesn’t exist. How could it? We’re America. We are a melting pot, and we are proud of that. Well if we are truly a melting pot, we will not ignore what is happening to the Asian communities right now. Today’s playlist is inspired by songs that have been anthems for different challenges that require our unity to overcome. The playlist ends with Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Many people believe this song was written to show our love for our country. It has gained popularity as the ultimate American anthem. Little do people know, it’s a song penned for Vietnam War vets. Springsteen wanted to call attention to the lack of support for returning vets who need help. Springsteen wrote the song to express ” I was born in America, and I deserve more.” I challenge us to take that sentiment one step further. Whether you were born here, we are all American, and we deserve better.
The Birthday Tapes 