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White-Asian-Egyptian-Roommate is a name one of my roommates lovingly calls me at least once a day. The white is in reference to my pale skin, the Asian is, well, I’m Asian, and the Egyptian has been recently added due to my frequency of talking in Arabic and love for Egyptian food.

I love how culturally diverse my apartment is. And yes Jaclynn, white people have culture too. And I love being Vietnamese-Chinese and I’ve come a long way in embracing this.

In 2007, I went to Kentucky for a mission trip. The area where my team was specifically serving lacked much ethnic diversity. I remember spending time with our family, the Burchettes, and their son Jake, I forgot his age but he was pretty young.

“Are you from China?” Jake randomly asked me one time in his Kentucky accent. I told him no and that I was born and raised in California.

“But you look Chinese! How can that be possible?” He replied. I explained to him how my parents immigrated over and blah blah blah. I then asked him what his ethnicity was and after some explaining of what “ethnicity” meant, he turned to me and proudly said, “I’M KENTUCKY!”

This story brings a smile to my face each time I think about it and I admire Jake’s boldness in embracing his “ethnicity”.

For the longest time I was not able to embrace my identity as being Vietnamese and Chinese. When people would ask about it, I would quickly mutter “Vietnamese” and emphasize the “Chinese”. I remember one time in high school, a friend was listing all the “admirable” contributions of each major Asian country. For example, South Korea has awesome TV dramas, China’s ballads, Japan’s anime, etc. Yes, it was a shallow observation looking retrospectively. Anyway, she asked me what Vietnam had to offer and I didn’t know except for the stereotypical, “nails”. I was ashamed of being Vietnamese because of the embarrassing stereotype of poor Vietnamese immigrants of only being qualified to handle manicures and pedicures, even more so because my mom did nails as a part time job to support herself and her growing family. I, sadly, rejected the “Vietnamese” in me.

I have come to realize that the beautiful struggle my parents went through is not something to be ashamed of. To be ashamed of this past is to discredit the effort and hardships they put forth in order to be where they are today. My mom no longer does nails but is a quality engineer and manager for a tech company. I’m very proud. And just like how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, I am now able to look at the art of nails with great humility, pride, and respect. I’m not comparing my mom to Jesus but I want to say that she has great humility. And humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking yourself as less than others.

Hi, my name is Antoinette. I’m not white, Egyptian, Native American, or Filipino. I’m Vietnamese and Chinese.