Saturday, May 21, 2016

AAPI Heritage Month: A powerful poem, "My Chinese ..."



SHE'S 18 years old and she's a student in the Boston public schools. She presented her poem "My Chinese" and brought down the house at the "Louder Than A Bomb" slam poetry contest held in Boston last week.

Unfortunately I don't have her name. Who is she? If anybody knows her name, please let me know.

Her words touched a nerve with a lot of people, including me. You don't have to be Chinese to feel her powerful poem. 
RELATED: 'Dear Young Man of Color'
"My Chinese is a racist joke I threw in the garbage, wrapped in a napkin stained with my culture and it made a sound as it hit the bottom: 'chink.'"

Wow! She touched me deeply, recalling those moments in my life when I felt ashamed or embarassed 

Any Asian understands what it means to have one's heritage suppressed by a culture will then turn around and appropriate it, exoticize it, make fun of it, or ... to render it invisible or irrelevant.
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