The first mask removed — sounds from the past

Look at Daniel, you should be more like Daniel.

That is the model minority myth.

Asians work hard, they make lots of money, they’re good at maths, they stay quiet.

I am only “successful” because, in hindsight, I spent the majority of my adult working life grinding under the gun.

Pause for a moment and think about that image. You’re rushing to get a spreadsheet done for a deadline, someone literally has a gun pointed at your head. You’ll get it done because it’s life or death. Are you going to complain about working conditions or worry about life’s purpose? No, you will die if you don’t get this done.

While I have never had a real gun pointed at me, I spent most of my life with the nervous system of someone who did, and I worked like it was life or death.

My fate was sealed before I was even born

It’s 1979, my mother and father traveled separately under the cover of night to sneak on a small river boat to escape the communist regime of Vietnam. In the years prior, my father served in the South Vietnamese Army alongside American soldiers.

In 1975, the US forces pulled out, and anyone left was rounded up and sent to re-education camp, including my father. After he finished his time there, the newly “educated” people were sent to the New Economic Zone, a worthless piece of land where nothing grew.