Alright, so lets take a moment to step back from my comedy and lets take a look at something extremely interesting that was shared with me earlier today. Raven-Symoné recently sat down with Oprah for an interview and said something that has upset a lot of people. You can take a look for yourself in the video below. As she starts on the topic of not wanting to be labeled, she says Im an American. Im not an African-American, Im an American. This single quote was enough for Oprah to flip her shit and for black-communities to start giving her flack. As for myself, I immediately identified with her. I identified with the fact that she wants to be distinguished as an American, and an American only. Nothing else. For the past 10+ years, I - like many other Americans born from Asian parents - have struggled immensely with identity. To make a long story short, my crisis of identity was consoled by realizing that I am American before anything else. I dont like to be called an Asian-American, Id rather say that Im an American with Korean decent - if I have to identify myself. I even reply to the question Are you Korean? with My parents are from Korea. Ms. Symoné has the luxury of being light skinned and not being able to completely trace back her roots to help strengthen her statement. I, on the other hand, have small eyes-black hair-yellow skin and know exactly what cities in South Korea my parents grew up in so its a little bit tougher for me to make similar statements and be taken seriously. At any rate, kudos to you Raven! I, like yourself, just want to be seen as an American. Id love to even take it as far as wanting to be seen as just a human, but I think society has at least another 100 years to go before we can drop all the labels. youtu.be/QXAho8vlmAI
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 01:20:22 +0000
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