Anna Catlin Baker,
Seattle, WA.
Collected from The Race Card Project, On Location: Seattle Community Colleges
I was adopted when I was 1 year(s) old from Southeastern China by a single Caucasian woman. I found out later in life that my birthparents are actually Vietnamese. I was raised “white”, American, but I look Asian. When I go out I feel that people expect certain things of me, such as, I should speak an Asian language, I should have an Asian name, I should have an accent. But I don’t speak an Asian language, I speak English; I have a very American name; I don’t have an accent. I don’t really fit into the category of ‘American’; people would say I am Asian American. But I don’t fit into the category of Asian completely either, I don’t have an Asian name, I don’t speak an Asian language, the two things connecting me to this category are my physical appearance and birth place. I am always ‘Somewhere In between’.