| Recently a survey showed that seven out of
ten Americans have somewhat or very negative opinions toward Chinese Americans.
Was this a surprise to you? Haven't you felt the hostility in people's
gaze? Haven't you felt the need to work as hard as can be just to prove
you are worth it? I know I came from a foreign country and have kept many
subtle foreign ways about me so I can just grin and bear it. But I feel
so unfair for my child and many other Chinese Americans who were born and
raised here that they would be discriminated against just because they
look different.
When we look inside of us, it should not be
a surprise to us that people fear and resent the unknown. If you were asked
the same questions in the survey about some other ethnic groups, can you
say for sure you would answer differently? I don't have a solution to this
age-old problem. But we have to think positively about ourselves and about
others. Always give people a chance so that we would be given a chance.
Keep an open mind so that doors would be open to us. For the sake of our
children, we should at least try.
C. Wu 
|