I’ve been raised with the idea that any exposure to sun rays will kill me if I don’t cover myself completely. Ever since I was little, my mother told me that I would get skin cancer at 20 years old, with the cancer mestatizing and killing me before I turn 25years  old - therefore she made me avoid the sun as much as possile.  The second reason why sun was a no-no is because of all the wrinkles you get. My mother told me that if I survived my 20’s without getting skin cancer, then I really had to worry about wrinkles - that I would like 80 years old when I was only 29 years old.

SKin Cancer + Wrinkles = ASIAN FEAR OF SUN. This is why all ASIAN WOMEN - especially Chinese ones - are SUPER freaked out about getting sun on them - oh and let’s add that having darker skin comes out of a long history of racial prejudice.

The obessesion with remaining light skinned and anti-sun means that there is a lot of $ to be made in fighting off the sun….such as this new mouth and neck cover my aunt bought me! In my mother’s dream world  I would also wear a  FOB-ASIAN sun visor at the same time that pulls down to cover your entire face with sunglasses to cover your eyes from UV damage and arm covers to prevent your arms from getting skin cancer first and from being darker than other parts of your body.  Would anyone walk around with me if I actually looked like this? My mother walks around like this everyday - in and out of Target - in out and of grocery stores. Well the mouth cover is a new addition to the family.  But I think we have officially joined FOB land now.  ps - annie this should make my mom is such a fob!

sheeeet I didn’t think it could have lived in a more ignorant suburb during my teenage years in the 90’s but “The East High Orientals” sign up in 2009 at Rochester beats Oakmont High School. Orientals - Indians - Redskins - all part of the same history of racist america that we have yet to rid - fight LUMBADA MUBATA ZAPOWATTA!

kenyatta reblogged (via glenda) a great post on the 7 Thing NEVER to Say to Asian-American Excecutives.

I would like to create a list called 7 Things a stranger should NEVER Say to Asian-American Females.

(btw - these are all true below - I’ve had strangers - usually white males - come up and say this to me. Or within the first 10 minutes of some introduction from a colleague, the white male will ask one of these questions to me. og and this only happens outside of NYC and SF)

1. you must be super flexible.

2. my friends and I have a bet about which Asian country you are from - we can’t seem to agree - can you tell us?

3. never say anything about our features!  “wow your cheeks are pretty big for being Chinese - I couldn’t sworn you were Korean.”

4. “I have a Thai (or whatver country) wife so I know a lot about….” Don’t preface any of your Asian knowledge with our Indian or Korean or Chinese wife - it does not make you an expert on Asian cultures. Just say what you know and stop using your ethnic wife as a your IKnow-About-Asia-license.

5. What does your last name mean?

6. From where are you visiting?

7. “Wow you sounded so different on the phone! You look different in person - from what I was expecting - I was expecting someone else - I  thought you would be like a blonde or something.”

8. Why are Asians so successful? There are so many at my college!

9. Do you date white guys?

10. What would your parents think if you dated a black guy?

ok so the list grew from 7 to 10.

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7 Things NEVER to Say to Asian-American Executives

1. “You must be the IT person.”

2. “You aren’t like them You don’t act very Asian.”

3. “Asian Americans are not risk takers.”

4. “Where are you from? No, where are you really from?”

5. “Oh, you speak English good!”

6. “You’re not a minority because all Asians are rich and successful.”

7. “You’re not Asian, you’re from India.”