Blog Post 7

When we first moved to Spokane I did not expect changes in my life. Like how Ben Loy in the film Eat a bowl of Tea didn’t have time to go to Washington with Mei Oi, my parents didn’t have time to take me to school so I had to take the bus to school which was something that I had never done before. I did not expect my mom’s family is so different from our family and I didn’t know how hard it is to assimilate to this new country.

As a later generation of immigrant I didn’t know the experiences of my grandparents and those who came before me. The only thing I knew about my grandpa and his generations of immigrants was they were former reeducation after the fall of Saigon on April 30^th, 1975. But I didn’t know why grandparents usually say “because they’re Americans” for anything that we watch on the news. I didn’t know why a Vietnamese lady in my aunt’s workplace had to please her boss so much to keep her job. I didn’t know why my friend’s grandparents don’t want to go outside unless it’s a family event. It was all because of history and their experiences from the past that made them who they’re today. From her past experiences the worker at my aunt’s workplace was scared that her boss doesn’t like her because she is not white and she needs the job to raise her kids. From the past experiences my friend’s grandparents were scared that they might be the victims of discrimination again so they don’t go outside if they don’t have to. And to my grandparents the idea of white privileges embedded to them ever since they came here, if a person is white he/she can do intelligent things that other races cannot do, or because they’re white they can do stupid things that Vietnamese people, or other races, can’t do. They have the power to do so. Before taking this class I usually question why some Vietnamese immigrants are so different from me even though we were both immigrants. But after taking this class my question changed into what kind of experiences did they had that made them different from me when we were both immigrants from Vietnam. By getting to know more about their past experiences I’m able to understand and connect to the people around me.