Earlier today I was listening in to an Instagram Live conversation about Zaretta Hammond’s levels of culture. This sparked interactions about how BIPOC have often been conditioned to do things that go against their own culture so that they can fit in.

In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, here is a short list of some things I did as a kid to fit in:

• I tried to highlight my hair with Sun In. That doesn’t work with black Asian hair. (I know I wrote about this in another blog post…)
• I wouldn’t eat white rice or Chinese food.
• I researched ways to look like I have a “double eyelid” without having to have surgery.
• I refused to learn to speak Mandarin or Taiwanese, even though Taiwanese was technically one of my first languages.

Not anymore–#veryasian and proud!