By Ryan Wong
SYLP student

Over the course of our lives, we have been faced with a bunch of stereotypes, such as, Asians have small eyes or Asians eat rice every day. I have seen people with really big eyes, and they are Asian. Also, we eat things besides rice, like noodles. People should think before they talk.

Once stereotypes hit us, they never stop coming back, like when people say ching-chong when they make fun of our language.

What if we made fun of your language? I’m not saying that we should, but what gives other races the privilege to make fun of our language, our eyes, and what we eat? It’s like they just say these stereotypes to make themselves feel better because they are sad about something, or something is going wrong in their lives. All the person has to do is sit down with someone and talk about it.

Another stereotype that is used very often is that Asians all look the same, but doesn’t everyone always say that everyone is unique in their own ways? I have compared a couple of Asians and they look nothing alike.

Adding on to my examples about stereotypes is that all the other races think that Asians are smart, especially in math. Also, people always think that Asians become doctors, lawyers, or engineers. A lot of people out in the world need to think broader and think outside of the box. Not all Asians are smart, some aren’t very intelligent. I’m not trying to be mean, but I’m just trying to make a point that some Asians are insanely smart and some are not as smart.
For all these young folks, what I want to say is don’t let stereotypes get to you. Stop them, before they stop you. ♦

Editor’s note: The ideas here do not necessarily represent Northwest Asian Weekly’s stance.