Further: being a man of color in America was not good. Mon and Dad worked so hard to immigrate to America, the land of opportunity, the home of the free, land of the brave etc etc etc.
They never felt fully welcomed by the nation. I, born there, never felt fully welcomed by the nation. People never hesitated to use pejorative terms to describe my ethnicity, to use their fingers to manipulate their face to reflect these terms, and to sing about peeing in my coke.
I’M NOT CHINESE, YOU STUPID AMERICANS.
Americans, in my experience, didn’t even take the time to inform their hatred or fear. This was not an environment in which I felt safe, happy or valued. And why does anybody stay in unsafe, unhappy and unvalued situations? Because they’re scared to leave.
I wasn’t scared.