Staying silent will be failing my civic duty

More than 20 years ago, carrying two suitcases, I landed in USA to attend graduate school.

The second day, walking along side walk of a major street, a car stopped next to me, and someone shouted to me, “go back to your home”. I chuckled “but I just got here”…

The first final exam, sitting in the class room, the professor of that class pointed to two of my fellow classmates, “you, sit in this corner, and you, sit in that corner, Chinese students are good at cheating, you guys need to sit far apart”. I shook my head in surprise and thought “what a funny stereotype”…

These were the only two time that I could think of that I felt the impact of my origin. Never had I felt fear. And everyone else here was so friendly and open-minded. I fell in love with this country and the people here.

After I graduated with a Ph.D degree, I found a great job that matched my skill and passion, I built a successful career, I became an American citizen, I got married and had kids…

I am of Asian origin… but I am also an American.

In my work settings, never did I think of myself as an Asian, a female, even though I hired many diversity employees. I think of myself as a hard working engineer, a colleague, a department head, a leader…

In the outside of work setting, I am relatively quiet and still get embarrassed of the fact I often can’t find the right English words to carry out a long social small talk. But…