Worse than Yours

The other night in class, an interesting statement was made by a classmate about identity, bias and prejudice. The classmate made clear that her identity was gay and that it would seem easier to have her identity more open so the bias and discrimination she experienced would be more obvious. Certainly there are challenges and pain when it comes to feeling the need as well as the very real necessity of hiding one's identity.

At the same time being a person of color for which my features are identified as such doesn't make the experience of bias and discrimination easier. In fact it can be frightening when racism rears its head and physically and/or emotionally threatens a person's life. Yet what's interesting is that as a person who is Asian-American, I am both visible and invisible. Visible in the way people address me as if I'm a foreigner in my own country and invisible because Asians are supposed to be submissive and quiet. I can't tell you how many times I have been removed from the race discussion because I'm neither Black or White.

No matter what, I feel that we are on shaky ground when we begin to compare each other's oppression. A common sentiment is that gay rights are not the same as civil rights yet it was MLK who said, "Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality." Although he was speaking of race, I can imagine that Dr. King would indeed be standing up for the rights of those who are LGBTQQIA.



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