Michelle talks about her identity as an Asian American.

“I am of Korean descent, but I was born in the United States. My entire family, however was born in Korea, so I have inherited a lot of the customs that come with being Korean. That didn’t make my life any easier; I had to struggle to prove that I wasn’t a foreigner, and that I grew up in the same conditions as my friends of other ethnicities. This proved to be difficult, because even though I maintain perfect English, and my dress style isn’t distinguishable against anyone else, my parents were in fact raising me with strict rules, more so than my white/black/hispanic friends. A lot of people didn’t understand why I couldn’t just sleepover anytime, why I had to do extra schoolwork, etc. It felt like I was being tugged at from two different sides of my life. It was a constant frustration when people would joke about bad driving, eating dogs, being short, and about 10 more stereotypes. Yes, jokes in moderation are humorous and I can laugh at stereotypical Asian jokes. But many times, people did it often enough that I felt belittled to what people thought of all Asians.”

“The worst was when I was asked, where I was really from; because New Jersey was not the right answer.”

“Moreover, I felt I had to identify with a certain type of Asian. The whitewashed Asian, and the Asian fob, typically those who are still viewed as complete foreigners, with no sign of assimilation to white culture. This was difficult because I did not want to be identified as a foreigner, but I was still proud of my heritage. So where do I belong?”