“The moment we crossed the border into this country … we were assigned a race as well.”

No longer Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Hmong or many others, America assigned us Asian. Does this matter?

David Shih thinks it does. In Chinese Prodigal: A Memoir in Eight Arguments, the son of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong dug deep into his Asian identity and found who really calls the shots.

In the simplest explanation I've seen of race vs. ethnicity, David points out that:

“… ethnic groups did not need one another to exist. What made me Asian American … was my place in a hierarchy between white and Black. The status of your skin wasn't absolute but relative to that of your neighbor“

Such as?

If you're Asian and America thinks you're the model minority, then you're good but also expected to be valedictorian.

If you're Asian and America thinks you're the China virus, then you're not good and a threat.

If you're Asian-White, most Asian-Americans see you as white.

If you're Black-White, most Americans see you as Black.

Who you are is what people see you as.

So how comfortable can we allow ourselves to be in our “Asian" identify?

“Have you heard?” is our way of sharing another point of view on commonly held beliefs. Through this we hope to encourage curiosity, dialogue, and tolerance of diverse ideas.