Visits of foreign leaders raises the age-old questions for Asian/Americans

Indian Prime Minister Nerandra Modi is visiting Silicon Valley this week.

IF YOU'RE Chinese/American or Indian/American - have you been asked your opinion about the visits of Indian Prime Minister Nerandra Modi or Chinese President Xi Jinping?

Xi is in the U.S. on an official state visit and Modi is visiting Silicon Valley to try and get more assistance for his country's exploding tech industry.

Now, their visits are important, don't get me wrong, it's important for us to maintain and acknowledge our roots, especially for our families back home or if we have business ties to the original countries, but many of us have been here for generations. We're Americans.

We should be interested in international relations and trade agreements as they might affect our country - the good ol' U.S.A. 

But at the same time, non-Asians generally view us as foreigners, no matter how long we've lived here, no matter if we speak with a southern accent or grew up in Brooklyn, no matter if we root for our favorite baseball team by wearing their colors and painting out faces, no matter if we're grew up with the Partridge Family as our role models (that's another post all-together), no matter if we served in the U.S. military in Iraq or Afghanistan or even fought against the citizens of other Asian nations on behalf of "Our Country." No matter! 

Being asked our opinions of Xi or Modi is akin to being asked, "Where are you from?" and you answer, "San Francisco" or fill-in-the-blank, and are asked again, "No, really! Where are you REALLY from?"

Because of the color of our skin, the shape of our eyes, the color of our hair, people (the non-Asian/Americans) still tend to view us as "others," "exotic" "strangers," "aliens" or "foreigners."

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