America has scared Asian Americans in not speaking their truths.
Like Hasan Minaj said on his Netflix special, “it is not enough to just be a part of the good parts of the American experience, you need to be a part of all of it.”
If you are Middle Eastern or North African you have been placed the label of 'terrorist', to discount your voice. If you are Pakistani or Indian, you are seen as an extension to the terrorists, and still shedding the skin of massive British abusive colonizations, psychic effect on your public appeal stays persist. If your eyes are slanted you are still the enemy of Vietnam, Korea and todays economical war with China.
We have all been labeled, as a muzzle, placing fear in our lives that if we speak we will be losing the precious luxuries we have been afforded by the American lifestyle. The best witnesses, the most honest accounts, the most revered stories are silenced. The thinking of moms and dads, thinking for their childrens better tomorrows, but those better tomorrows will wash into the next generation facing the same plait, living in the shadows, being unnoticed, discounted, unimportant, just so, you dont cause any waves, you dont bring attention, so maybe, your kids can find the American Dream.
The American Dream's reality is a nightmare of uncertainty living as second class citizens never being afforded the opportunity as the 'real citizens of this nation' have access to, a fundamental disproportional methodical system that dates back to the 13th Century and its European rulers.
It is no longer acceptable to sit on the sidelines, it is no longer acceptable to pretend to fit in, it is no longer acceptable to have a different private conversation than a public conversation.
Many people from Asian still have the generational bearings of European colonization around their psyche, their will to bow before the conquerors. They were permitted and accepted from US embassy's around the world, after detailed checks, personal interview
s and structuraled processes that based their acceptance to live in the US, as conditional, a privileged, like how the North emancipated the South yet still live in its benefits !
The same struggle, the same tactics, the same methods are administrated from the same enemy. It is criminal to feel, understand but yet not put forth the same work, blood, sweat and tears as those putting in the work. It would be worse then to think, that the same gains should be applied to you. This act is cowardly and worse shows no growth in you, as you are just again following, instead of leading and controlling your destiny.