Dear Leslie Clark,
I have heard about your concerns with the growing Asian-American population in Fremont and
Mission San Jose High School, and your desire to move to nearby areas such as Pleasanton and
Livermore, which you say have more “feeling for the White community.” I understand how you
might misinterpret us Asian-Americans, and dislike the emphasis we place on education and success.
You might even believe that our parents are abusive, stunting our social growth and forcing us to study
all the time. While that may be the case for some, for me, I push myself not because my parents expect
me to, but because I owe it to them. My parents have gone through so much to put me in my current
position; they worked tirelessly to come to America and buy a house in the Mission San Jose district.
The reason they want me to study hard is because that’s all they can provide me. They don’t have a
vast inheritance. We don’t have a large family fortune. We don’t have connections. The only thing
they can leave me with is an education, and a position for future success. It is for this reason that I
push myself by taking challenging courses and achieving good grades. I know what I’m capable of,
and I owe it to my parents to achieve my full potential. I know you feel threatened by
Asian-Americans, and I know you think us weird and abnormal. But it doesn’t matter to me, for
I’ll keep succeeding.
From,

Melony Fong

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muslim Arab American to Professor of American Identities at Emory University

Muslim Arab American to Professor of American Identities at Emory University After September 11, 2001, my life was turned up-side-down. I was the victim of hate crimes, name-calling, and cruel Transportation Security Administration interrogations. I found myself associated with people who Muslim and non-muslim Americans alike despise. The reality is that the Arab American narrative is far from terrorism and extremism. Because western culture perpetuates portrayals of Muslim women as oppressed and without free will, Arab American Feminists are forced to focus their attention on addressing and correcting this misinformation. Similarly, when Bush’s infamous plan “The War on Terror” is used as an excuse to discriminate against Muslims, members of both the Arab and Muslim community become pressured to assimilate or remain compliant. More than my religion, I have been oppressed by white representations of Arab-Americans. I ask that in your classes, you emphasize Arab-Americans as individ...
Read more

Open letter to the Mexican Immigrant

To the "Illegal Alien," the Mexican immigrant You come to America, ripped from your homes, searching for some semblance of acceptance. However, America denies you not only the right to dream but even the right to humanity. America degrades you. America has used you for its own gain—plugged holes in its agricultural economy—then thrown you to the side like trash. This is not the America I believe in. This is America at its worst. I wish we could send the aid necessary to help you.  Anonymous Citizen
Read more

A letter to American Feminists

To American Feminists, The notion of our veil is a poorly constructed one in American society, especially after the disastrous strike in Sep.11 th , 2001, reflecting the mass misrepresentation of women’s lives in Arab. The media’s popular portrayal of us as universally helpless and dominated by the the patriarchy that continues to exist in Arab culture (as if any society is free of it) has reinforced American perceptions that Arabs and Muslims are degenerate and twisted, thus worthy of domination and bombing. While the lives of some Arab women may fit this stereotype (just as “barefoot and pregnant” rings true for some American women), the experiences of so many cannot be perfectly labeled. Historical visions of Arab women have been dominated by the Western-generated frenzy over the odalisque, which perpetuated the misconceptions through your ignorance. Rather than making those waging these struggles invisible under a pervasive stereotype, it is our job to inform ...
Read more