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The article below was written by Meg Tysen, a sweet, intelligent, and talented 18-year-old artist and writer. She is a Biracial Amerasian young woman and daughter of a Japanese-born mother and an American-born father. Listen to her share her thoughts about Asian hate in the land of compromise as she sees it through the lens of her unique perspective. This drawing is her artistic expression of these words. (I won’t ask this on all of my posts, but I would REALLY appreciate it if you would share this one post🙏🏼)

If you have been looking at my stories recently, I’m sure you know that I am completely losing it with people’s reaction to this situation. I am SO tired of people invalidating how Asian people have been feeling about this situation and trying to silence us by saying that our issues aren’t as bad as another’s. I know this is not something only I have faced, and many other Asian people have also experienced. Because people tell us that the problems we face are basically invalid, we have a harder time speaking up about it.

I need people to understand that when us Asian people speak up solely about the issues we face, we are not invalidating any other issues that happen to other groups of people. We are just bringing awareness towards what we face, which are just as valid.

With that said, I would just like to encourage you all to help raise awareness of the issues people face, whether you are a part of the community or not. A lot of Asian people, including myself, feel silenced a lot of times to bring up these issues, so any help from people outside the Asian community is so helpful. If you are unable to help by donating to organizations or anything like that directly, please at least treat Asian people better. 

We face a lot of microaggressions daily, and if we can decrease that, I think that will be a good first step to ending the hate.

(Also, please don’t tell me that I am not allowed to speak on these issues from personal experience because I’m half white. I am not white passing to most people in the US and I face casual racism specifically for being Asian ALL THE TIME. 

I am aware that I benefit from white privilege sometimes, but please do not try to erase the struggles I do face by calling me a “white person” I’m just as Japanese as I am white.

By Meg Tysen