A Bitter Sweet Place
As someone living between two cultures, I have become observant of social and cultural differences within gender and race. Through my perspective as a second generation female Asian American, my work is an examination of growing up in the suburbs. With the current racial politics, I and many others have become confronted everyday with the systemic racism in our country. With this, I am reminded of the pressures that my immigrant parents placed on my siblings and myself, to conform to the social norms, to not stand out, seem more different then we already were from our community. I question the societal norms and ideals that my parents hoped we could assimilate to. So we might live the American Dream.
I have become hyper aware of the cultural differences between the upbringing that I had vs. my son’s , us being a biracial family. I go back and forth between the moments in my childhood that contributed to my questions I have as an adult. When I was young, my family and I were a minority in the community. I tried to avoid or hide the spaces, accent, objects and foods that reflected my cultural background but I’ve grown to know that this feeling of insecurity spoke more about the issues with the place than of myself.
I question the model of a suburban community and speak to the pros and cons of these developments. My hope for my work is to create discussions on the history, the inequalities and the cultural constructs grown from the suburbs as a social survey of what lack of diversity and inclusion means.