More than meets the eye

"Where are you from?”

For many, it's an easy question with an easy answer. For me, it's a question with no right answer.

Usually I tell people Aurora because it's the city I currently live in, or Denver because it's where I was born. But I would get the same response after I say this.

“Oh,” the person would say. “So, where are you really from?”

The answer they are looking for is Vietnam, the country which my parents were born. Then I'm usually bombarded with random Asian facts or a list of Vietnamese people that this person knows.

As if I cared about these facts or knew all 15,000-plus Vietnamese Americans that live in Colorado.

This is the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype – the notion that those of Asian descent are unassimilated and inherently foreign.

When I was in preschool, I remember sitting in a circle with my peers when one of them told me that I wasn't American.

I became defensive and told him I was American because I was born in Denver, but he told me that it didn't matter. I left school in tears that day. My mom asked me what was wrong, but I never did tell her.

Flash forward 18 years and many, many more encounters later. It's no longer blatant attacks of, “Go back to your own country,” but rather it's a number of passive comments and actions that have been embedded into my daily life.

Just this past week, I was covering an event when an organizer came up to me with a press packet.

“I'm sorry, but we only have them in English,” he said, referring to the packets.

Perplexed, I looked at him and replied, “I work for an English-language publication.”

I suppose it shouldn't surprise me anymore, but every time I get in this situation, I'm still caught offguard. How does one respond to this? I used to try educating people, but when I only have 10 seconds, it's difficult to convey my message.

I've heard the argument that this is “just an honest mistake” or that “it's not a big deal.” But for me, it's a problem. And a problem that's not addressed will never be fixed.