Tu Nguyen
Philadelphia, PA
I am a 9th grader at central high school in Philadelphia. I wrote these words because I know that I’m not the only one who has heard them before. I am Vietnamese, but people often assume that I am in some way, Chinese. I notice that often then not, people tend to decide for themselves what someone is, instead of getting to know that person and actually learning what their ethnicity really is. It bothers me to know that people are judged based on stereotypes for example, Asians are said to have chink/small eyes, all Asians look identical, their IQ’s are higher than an average person who is not Asian, they study nonstop and always get straight A’s, etc. These things are not true about Asians, every one is different in they own ways or else we would all be clones of each other. I also often hear the words “ching-chong” countless amounts of time. I don’t understand why, someone feels the need to say it to an Asian person, because not all Asians are Chinese and “ching-chong” isn’t a real word. Not only are they making a fool of themselves for saying this, but also they are making the other person feel low and unimportant. Try being in the other persons shoes and see how it feels to be insulted because you are different. The next time you meet an Asian person or anyone of a different ethnicity try to learn about them, instead of assuming that they are this or that or saying something that you saw online/tv because it may not be true and will hurt that person. Think twice about what you say.
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