I signed up to write for International Blog Against Racism Week, so this week, my flist is going to get a fair dose of my opinions and thoughts of racism.
First, a little disclaimer and history.
History: I am ethnically Sri Lankan with two Sri Lankan parents. I was born in LA, California. I grew up mostly in Austria, Europe. I attend university in America but before that, I went to a truly international school where most of the students had parents in the UN. My own parents work for the UN. I'm an intern for the UN in Austria at the moment.
There, that's the history over with. Painless, huh? Just bear in mind that I belong to one continent, grew up on a second and currently reside on a third.
Disclaimer-wise: I am not a good Sri Lankan girl. I have Asian pride, but there are many aspects in which I am not 'Sri Lankan enough'. I am not a good Austrian girl, and can in no way pass for one, and would never try it anyway. I doubt that I'm a good American girl, since the culture still makes me boggle and I find it hard to define myself as belonging to a country that I've spent barely three years in.
If I'm talking about racism, I'm talking about racism based on my appearance of being Sri Lankan or South Asian. If I say Asian without anything before it, I probably mean all of Asia. Otherwise, I have to differentiate between South Asian (India, Sri Lankan, Pakistan, Bangladesh), East Asian (Japanese, South Korean, North Korean, Chinese) and South East Asian (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore) because otherwise, I suspect that saying 'Asian' will just make most people think 'Japanese' or thereabouts.
So, on with the post!
For today, I decided to talk about my very first encounter with racism -- or at least, the first one that I recognized as racism, or the first one that I am old enough to remember. There could have been others, earlier on, but this is the one that made the most impact on me.
( My First Encounter With Racism. Nowhere near as cool as My First Pony or whatever. )
First, a little disclaimer and history.
History: I am ethnically Sri Lankan with two Sri Lankan parents. I was born in LA, California. I grew up mostly in Austria, Europe. I attend university in America but before that, I went to a truly international school where most of the students had parents in the UN. My own parents work for the UN. I'm an intern for the UN in Austria at the moment.
There, that's the history over with. Painless, huh? Just bear in mind that I belong to one continent, grew up on a second and currently reside on a third.
Disclaimer-wise: I am not a good Sri Lankan girl. I have Asian pride, but there are many aspects in which I am not 'Sri Lankan enough'. I am not a good Austrian girl, and can in no way pass for one, and would never try it anyway. I doubt that I'm a good American girl, since the culture still makes me boggle and I find it hard to define myself as belonging to a country that I've spent barely three years in.
If I'm talking about racism, I'm talking about racism based on my appearance of being Sri Lankan or South Asian. If I say Asian without anything before it, I probably mean all of Asia. Otherwise, I have to differentiate between South Asian (India, Sri Lankan, Pakistan, Bangladesh), East Asian (Japanese, South Korean, North Korean, Chinese) and South East Asian (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore) because otherwise, I suspect that saying 'Asian' will just make most people think 'Japanese' or thereabouts.
So, on with the post!
For today, I decided to talk about my very first encounter with racism -- or at least, the first one that I recognized as racism, or the first one that I am old enough to remember. There could have been others, earlier on, but this is the one that made the most impact on me.
( My First Encounter With Racism. Nowhere near as cool as My First Pony or whatever. )
