My distinguished padlet by Phuntsog, Nawang https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7 Made with fortitude en-us 2016-09-21 18:34:35 UTC 2016-09-26 15:42:27 UTC hello@padlet.com Cilck on the Plus sign and write within the box. nphuntsog https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125531518 2016-09-21 18:39:03 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125531518 Just some quick background: I am Mexican/Filipino. I grew up in an English speaking household. My grandpa was the only one who spoke Tagalog and had passed away when I was 2 before I got to know anything about the culture.  When someone speaks to me in Spanish and I can't fully comprehend what they are asking/telling me I feel they get annoyed at me. They then ask me, "well aren't you Hispanic?" I would respond yes and they usually give me this dirty look kind of face as if they are offended. As of now, yes I am able to speak some Spanish due to my stepdad and husband's family. I am proud to be speaking Spanish because I know that it will help me with my future career. But please do not just assume I speak Spanish. It is probably best to ask first. https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125550334 2016-09-21 19:36:48 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125550334 Meeting With My High School Counselor  https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125565458 I remember going to see my high school counselor my freshman year because I needed a class changed.  He directly asked me why I was there and I explained I was there to make a class change.  I remember him looking me sternly in the eyes and saying, why am I bothering with this...do you even plan on graduating from high school????
I answered of course and he just shook his head with annoyance. However, when he brought up my classes on the computer and saw that my schedule was full of honor classes his attitude changed with me. I remember thinking wow...this guy thinks just because I am a Mexican girl I was going to drop out of school.]]> 2016-09-21 21:09:52 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125565458 https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125573182 This was early 2000, as I was running to class on the campus of a Cal State, a White guy said "Yeah, run Chink" as I sprinted by him. Last year, when I was walking into Macy's at South Coast Plaza, a father and a grade-school-age son, both White, walked past me laughing and saying "Ching-ching. Chong-chong". ]]> 2016-09-21 22:29:50 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125573182 Not Funny https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125573447 This was early 2000, as I was running to class on the campus of a Cal State, a White guy said "Yeah, run Chink" as I sprinted by him. Last year, when I was walking into Macy's at South Coast Plaza, a father and a grade-school-age son, both White, walked past me laughing and saying  "Ching-ching. Chong-chong".  
This is just a snippet of racism I have experienced in my life. Racism is around me everyday, but as I wise-up , I sense it is my duty to gently remind racist and prejudice people that I feel hurt when they make me feel like I don't belong. There is nothing wrong, funny, or unimportant about my ethnicity. ]]> 2016-09-21 22:34:06 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125573447 Women in a man world https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125574347 Being a women, people assume that your worth is lowering than mens, when I was at my first job at a restaurant and it was my first day and the guy who was training me was also training another new employee who was a man. We had the same experiences and we were the same age but he treated us completely differently and ]]> 2016-09-21 22:48:23 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125574347 B https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125830016 2016-09-22 18:12:53 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125830016 Cultural Background https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125830018 I am biracial, my mom is American and my dad is Middle Eastern. We primarily go to my dad's Syriac Orthodox church every Sunday, and I am a teacher in their Sunday School. From my appearance, I look American, so when parents drop of their children at Sunday School, some of them make me feel as though I do not belong in my own church. At first they assume I know how to speak Arabic, and when I say I don't they are then extremely rude to me. Just because I appear "White" it doesn't mean that I am purely American. Being excluded at my church in some ways based on my appearance has been common since I was little.  ]]> 2016-09-22 18:12:55 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125830018 Uncomfortable Stares https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125842379 For my birthday my boyfriend took me out for a nice dinner. The restaurant was really elegant and it was in an upper-middle class area, where there was mostly white people. Throughout our dinner we experienced unwanted stares from many people dining and working at the restaurant. The waiter kept checking up on us as if we were going to leave without paying the check just because we weren’t white. I felt really uncomfortable throughout dinner and I hated the feeling of being started at as if I was an outsider simply because of the color of my skin. ]]> 2016-09-22 18:45:40 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/125842379 https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126140723
IT'S NOT FAIR 

I am white. I am proud to be white. Why can't I be proud of my culture? Why is it that anytime a person who is white states that they are proud to be, automatically makes them racist? Why is it that anytime a white person feels threatened or discriminated against it is because we deserve it because of our ancestors? Other races do not want to be compared to their ancestors or the slaves that once were, so why the hell am I getting judged and compared to "mine"? Why do other cultures on campus get their owns clubs and mine doesn't? Like there hasn't been evil in this world that has come from a person of color? Evil has no color. Why am I stereotyped for having correct grammar and liking coffee? You say you want to stop discrimination, then STOP IT. Do not attack another race in order to solve your problems. If a white person makes a comment it's racist, but if a person of color makes the same comment then it's funny. I did not get into college because I'm white. I am not paying for college because I'm white. My parents worked their assess off to be where they are, they were not overly privileged because they are white. I have feelings too. The saying "Be the change you want to see in the world" is the best damn way to live your life. Be kind to all. Be empathetic. Do not judge.
]]> 2016-09-23 23:45:18 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126140723 I am very proud to identify myself as a first generation mexican american. I come from immigrant parents who worked extremely hard to give my brother and I the life they never had. I grew up in a predominately Caucasian community and although I was fortunate enough to have never experienced the cruelty of racism as a child, I later did as an adult. I worked as a teller at a bank and I would assist our spanish speaking customers in spanish. One day an older white woman was in line as I was speaking to my customer in spanish. She muttered to other people in line how if "we live in America, we should speak english" and that they shouldn't allow us (tellers) to speak spanish. She even went far enough to "jokingly" say "alright that's enough of that language". At the moment I felt angry and upset. Now that I look bad I just feel disappointment, it's such ignorance to make a statement like that.  https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126213778 2016-09-25 14:50:50 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126213778 Racial Tensions https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126224520 In highschool, I was a member of the Associated Student Body (ASB). A few of the white female members of the class banded together and started calling themselves "the white girls." They would collectively bully and pressure the minority groups in the class to vote for their ideas, and this quickly created a lot of tension between the racial groups. The ASB supervisor, a white female, would follow their lead in unfair treatment towards others. She actually rigged the elections for ASB President and was caught for announcing to the entire school that one of the "white girls" had won, when the votes  clearly indicated that it was in fact an Indian male who had been elected. This caused a huge scandal at our school and she was removed from her position as ASB Supervisor (but not fired from teaching which is infuriating).]]> 2016-09-25 17:39:50 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126224520 I am Chinese, maybe. https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126225236 I am Mexican-American and recently discovered that my grandfather might have been the son of a Chinese railroad worker in Mexico. It completely makes sense. My great-grandmother was sort of a free spirit. She had many men courting her and dated and married who she wanted. She eventually married a man who gave my grandpa his last name. He had met my great grandmother, Josie, when she was a single mother. 
We all look pretty Asian (more than your basic Mexican-Indian Asian), and my grandpa really looked Asian. I remember asking my dad, "Is Grandpa Chinese," when I was a child. Even with no filter or prejudice, it was there. People in the East LA neighborhood referred to my dad's family as "Los Chinitos." 
I think this is all great. I l love this new possible dimension to my identity. But my brother completely dismisses it, and is really defensive. What's the problem? Is it because he identifies so much with Irish culture (which we are by blood, by way of Mexico also)? Is it because he thinks that I want to exoticise us? 
I struggle with this and don't really know what to do with it. ]]> 2016-09-25 17:52:47 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126225236 I am very proud of my background and being a minority has made me stronger. Also as a women and minority it motivates me to keep going after my goals.  https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126254969 2016-09-26 02:30:09 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126254969 I am proud of my background. I am Salvadorian American. I was born in Los Angeles and I feel that race is a very power tool. The reason  why I say that is ,because I was brought up to think you can achieve anything no matter what your race is. https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126267439 2016-09-26 05:57:12 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126267439 I'm Not a Blonde Joke https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126273180 One way that I feel discriminated against is by my hair color. I feel like this is something that many people probably don't think about and I also feel kind of cautious bringing up because I'm afraid people might feel like it's not that serious of a problem compared to so many issues that are out there in the world. And while I'm not trying to say that my problem is bigger than any one elses' I would be lying if I said that it doesn't affect me when I feel like I'm being treated differently for having blonde hair. In the media blondes are always portrayed as dumb, ditzy, vain and materialistic. A lot of the time I feel like people stereotype me just from looking at me and treat me differently by thinking that I don't know what I'm talking about. I feel like I always have to prove that I'm smart or that I know what I'm talking about because people can be quick to easily dismiss what I say. I've gone through experiences where a non-blonde will say the same thing as me but what they say is taken seriously whereas I was dismissed. Or for example, if I'm the only blonde in a group of people I feel like they all just want to laugh at what I say because I'm stereotypically the dumb one who says dumb things.

]]> 2016-09-26 06:47:42 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126273180 Lucky me... https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126276090 I feel like i may have just been really lucky throughout my entire life. As an elementary school kid, I tested into the GATE program. This meant that I was in advanced classes that were typically full of Asian students. Even though i was surrounded by kids of a different race and cultural background, they never made me feel like an outsider. We were all just friends. This continued through until i left high school. I still took advanced classes with mostly Asian students, and neither me nor the Asian students felt out of place. I understand that this is not how everyone experiences these situations, but I have been lucky.]]> 2016-09-26 07:08:55 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126276090 Being a Chinese-American Female https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126365558 Having grown up in an area where Asians were the majority, it was actually more out of place to be white than Asian in my childhood. However, this wasn't the case in portrayal of families in media, in which white, Christian families were the norm. I've also noticed with time that being female in the dance community held its disadvantages. In the collegiate dance scene, men are often the ones directing and choreographing for teams, often with women directing pieces that are specifically "feminine".

]]> 2016-09-26 13:43:41 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126365558 My perspective https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126409658 To be honest, I haven't really faced much discrimination, even as an Asian in a predominately Mexican school. The most "discrimination" I felt was when people felt that I would be good at math because of my ethnicity. But boy, am I bad at math.
I guess what I'm getting at is that, a lot of racial comments and questions (especially at an earlier age), comes from not knowing. I've had my fair share of thinking some students as White when they're Mexican, and vice versa. Who am I to get offended when they ask what kind of Asian I am.]]> 2016-09-26 15:26:07 UTC https://padlet.com/nphuntsog/s1jn24bmkcu7/wish/126409658