Hillary Clinton Concedes Presidential Election
I live in America, but I do not consider myself to be American. I am biracial; one of my parents is an immigrant, and I spent the large majority of my life living overseas. I am a third culture kid, meaning I grew up in places that were neither of my parent’s home countries. The first time I moved back to the United States was to attend college. I identify much more with the cultures that I grew up in outside of the U.S. As a result, watching this election has been surreal to me. I have felt a vast distance between myself and the general American population during the process. Part of this comes from the fact that in relocating to the U.S., I found it immensely difficult to grasp the culture. My life was spent living in Saigon, Vietnam and London, England. I went to international schools in both places, where any sort of jokes surrounding race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, or religion were met with zero tolerance. Yet during my time in the U.S., I have found that the typical humor for my peers is grounded in disrespecting those things. My comfort foods include phở and sticky rice, and I have absolutely no interest in professional football or basketball. With my closest friends, at any given time we converse in English, French, Vietnamese, or Mandarin, and yet I cannot grasp the most basic American slang. Even now after three years of being here, I find American culture to be loud and aggressive. There is a part of me that knows that no matter how long I live here, I will always feel a distance from this country.
My Vietnamese upbringing was instrumental in teaching me to be respectful of others. In Vietnam, we address one another in familial terms, such as chị (older sister), or ông (respected uncle), to imply a sense of respect and care. The community comes before the self, and we are taught to do everything with others in mind. I only began my meals once every elder at the table had been served. Last year, my family and I went to go hand out candy and medicine in one of the poorer villages outside the city. Rather than hoard for themselves, the children ran throughout the whole neighborhood making sure each child got some too. In the U.S., people are much more individualistic. Establishing oneself as socio-economically or intellectually above others is more important than lifting each other up or honoring each other’s values. Having more expensive things than other people comes with a sense of pride. This has been the greatest divide between myself and the American culture. After this election, I have felt that divide widen. I cannot fathom how this America chose someone who so dramatically contradicts everything I have been raised to believe about inclusion, acceptance, and togetherness.
My whole life I have lived in communities where no two people were of the same nationality. One of my schools had only 220 children, but those children represented 66 different nationalities. At another school, I was the only one who spoke fluent English. My world had been composed of immigrants. My father, grandmother, aunts and uncles were all immigrants to the U.S. In London we lived in an entirely expatriate community where every family had lived in multiple countries and spoke multiple languages. My closest friends were Syrian and Egyptian - the very same nationalities that are being used in fear mongering and unjustified hatred. This feeling of kinship with the marginalized, the feeling of empathy for those who live in fear, and the alienation I feel living in the U.S has left me confused and unsure of where I fall in this. However, I know that the only things I can do is to find where I’m needed, give where I can, and allow empathy to steer me through these next four years.