My late father-in-law was an officer for the South Vietnamese military. He trained with American soldiers and fought alongside them. He met my mother-in-law as he was standing guard at a refugee camp she moved into. She had watched her home burn to the ground.
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As the war ended, my FIL was given a choice, leave his home country, or stay and be “re-educated.” In case it’s not clear, “re-educated,” as he explained it, was to be sent into the jungle until your death.
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He, his wife, and their two young children -my husband and his sister- left everything and came to live in a refugee camp in the US before moving to Virginia. I remember well a story my FIL told me shortly before he passed away:
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He had been advised by a friend that if he was out and anybody asked if he was Vietnamese, he should lie and say he was Japanese instead.
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One day, in the parking lot of a grocery store, my FIL noticed a white man staring. The man stopped what he was doing, approached my FIL, and asked angrily, “You Vietnamese?” My FIL recounted he laughed quietly and bowing said, “No no, I’m Japanese.”
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The man said, “ok” and walked away. My FIL believed he would have been attacked had he told the truth.
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Things have not changed so much. My husband tells me he has always tried to lay low and not draw attention to himself. “Why?” To blend in. “With who?” White people, I guess. “Why?” So they wouldn’t notice I was different. “What would happen if they did?”
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Some would not like it. “Who?’ *pause* Racists.
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How many of our children are just trying to lay below the radar so as not to get noticed by supremacists? How many have seen themselves mocked in literature and TV and been impacted? How many are missing their potential b/c of fear?
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How many of these future adults could be holding the cure for cancer? The next musical genius? The inventor of who knows what life-saving tool? Yet, we’ll never see it because they spend their lives focused on blending in with the ones who make them feel less than.
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Anti-Racism is Anti-Racism. I am blessed to work in a community that stands together - school, families, neighbors, businesses.
My husband’s story is part of my ‘why.’
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My husband’s story is part of my ‘why.’
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Cunningham Park is my pride.
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@threadreaderapp Pls unroll
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