American

As the fastest growing minority group in the United States, the AAPI category compresses the economic realities of each group — it misleads with a monolithic image of Asian success.

When the sun hits your face just right and the wind edges past the leaves to sound like the ocean – if you close your eyes, it’s almost as if you are home.

In the past few days, Ukraine has also taught the rest of the world what it means to love freedom, what it means to be brave in the face of danger and what it means to be a hero.

As “Deen,” I no longer had to be the ambassador for my name’s origin. I could just be an “American,” freed from the shackles of my name’s uniqueness in this country.

For so long, I had looked inwards at America from the outside. Yet now that I’m across the border, it seems that I am still not “in” America.

Two-year-old Edith Heines watched the blood as it pooled and snaked across the white tiles of her home. Moments earlier, two Gestapo men had kicked down the 400-year old door of her family’s house and brutally tortured the family's housemate.

Growing up as a second-generation Chinese American with a largely American upbringing, I found it easy to feel disconnected from my cultural background.

Despite its sometimes arbitrary use, my Chinese name has always felt like a gift: I was the last one in my family named by my great-grandmother.

I want to extend this advice to all readers: In this lockdown, watch some movies from different parts of your parents’ countries — or even your friends’. 

While my American friends received hugs, kisses and praise from their parents, I felt that I was always making a mess in my parents’ eyes.