'I couldn’t help but wonder: Why does everyone else find me and my experience so funny? After many years of enduring a special kind of racial trauma, I learned the answer.'
: “Sometimes I wonder if the Asian-American experience is what it’s like when you’re thinking about everyone else, but nobody else is thinking about you.” This hit home.
For many, our life’s mission is to make our parents proud. We can’t help but seek others’ approval, and we care deeply about what others think about us. It is this cultural norm that has made us susceptible and vulnerable to the Model Minority Myth, which argues that if we behave and work hard enough, we will finally be seen as equalsIt’s why I, a non-Black person of color, have a hard time discussing racism against Asians in America.
BIPOC experience complex racial trauma on a daily basis. Complex trauma refers to any kind of trauma thatThose who experience complex trauma have a tendency to feel unheard, unseen and unable to make change. What is unique about complextrauma is that it occurs on both societal and individual levels. The world that we exist in tells us that we don’t matter, our family’s words at home also reflect this sentiment, and we begin to internalize these negative core beliefs.