I am Not Your Model Minority
by Jimmy Nguyen, Theatre ‘21
History tells me I’m nothing but a taxi driver, a gas station clerk, a laundromat owner, a Chinese restaurant waiter. I’m not even Chinese. But I guess that doesn’t matter because most white people can’t really tell the difference between Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Vietnamese people. They are all the same, right? I’m pigeon-holed into a history of one-line scientists and bullied, anti-social school kids like what you see on sitcoms and movies, but that’s not me.
My name is Jimmy Nguyen and I am Asian American. But I am not your Asian American. I am not your smart nerd sidekick, I am not your comedic laundromat owner who doesn’t understand English, I am not your “model minority”, which is an excuse for white people to use us as an example for being quiet, obedient, not causing any troubles… until a global pandemic emerges and every time I go into a store to grab groceries for my family, people give me death glares and side glances even though I have my mask on and they don’t. That’s something I don’t understand. If I wear a mask while Asian, people think I am infected. If I don’t wear a mask while Asian, people still think I am infected and then get angry at me for not wearing a mask. I am constantly on the losing side of history and I will not stay silent to appease white people.
We have a problem at Doane; the problem is that we are not willing to listen to people who are different from us. The secret to empathy is to actually listen to what other people are saying. Because when you listen, process, and respond, that is where meaningful conversations form. But when you take out the first step of listening, you are not having a meaningful conversation with anyone but yourself as you have cut the line of connection between you and the other person. One of my very first classes at Doane, I realized that people did not listen to me because of my skin tone. A professor sparked a topic of debate in the class. One class member gave their ideas and then I responded back to their opinions. This is how normal conversations usually go, I’m sure we can all imagine a conversation, correct? Conversations are what people participate in every day. Except this wasn’t a conversation. After I gave my argument, the student stopped the conversation and told me “I’m surprised, you really speak good!” Tell me, why would I not “speak good”? I have been in America for as long as you, I have learned the same English in elementary school as you, and when you reduce everything I was saying — every passion I had, every injustice I wanted to share because of the racism in our school — when you push all that to the side and give me a backhanded compliment like “You speak really good,” then you didn’t and are not willing to listen to anything I have said or will ever say. And I fear for a society filled with people who are not willing to listen to each other and only want to hear themselves talk. When people get past that stage, they will see a world of color; people will be more respectful of other people’s views and opinions, we will understand more about racism and how to address it and we can finally start taking the first steps toward a better, safer, and more understanding world.
Do you want to know more about my heritage and culture? Just ask me. Let’s sit down, have a proper conversation, and listen to each other. Let’s laugh, cry, and learn from each other. There is so much to learn from each other.
Also, by the way, I speak *well, not “good”.
The blog posts in Forward. Together. are intended to foster an inclusive community of empathy and curiosity at Doane University by providing a glimpse into various individual identities and worldviews. These are community members’ unique stories and should not be presumed to be the experience of all who share the same identity.
