As I got older, I realised that people saw me as other things - sometimes Korean, sometimes Japanese, sometimes just Asian. When my family moved to a more affluent white neighbourhood, I started to see myself as 'other', this amorphous category. I didn't even know what 'not other' was, but I knew I wasn't it; I wasn't what was normal.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the experience of racial identity and feeling like an outsider due to societal perceptions.
In this quote, Jenny Zhang discusses how her understanding of her identity evolved as she grew older, particularly in response to the way others categorized her based on her ethnicity. Moving to a predominantly white neighborhood led her to recognize herself as 'other,' prompting a sense of alienation as she navigated her identity in a context where she felt she did not belong to the 'normal' or dominant cultural group.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about cultural identity at a diversity workshop.
Mothers have always held such symbolic weight in determining a person's worth. Your mother tongue, your motherland, your mother's values - these things can qualify or disqualify you from attaining myriad American dreams: love, fluency, citizenship, legitimacy, acceptance, success, freedom.
I think for people who are inside these relationships that are really hard to leave, there is always a compelling reason to stay. It's not that they are wholly bad people.
I'd like to think that, when I explain it, that Mr. Trump will understand marriage is defined by two people who love each other, commit to each other, and will care for each other through thick and thin.
Her great merit is finding out mine; there is nothing so amiable as discernment.
I don't think most men do hate women at all - I think most men are trying their best and facing a culturation into masculine behaviour that forces them to deny their own humanity and to exaggerate distance from the world of women.
Our character is mainly shaped by our primary social community - the people with whom we eat, play, converse, and study.
When I look around the world, I don't see too many damsels in distress. If they're a damsel in distress, they're manipulating some guy to help them.
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