OPINION
Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
March 7, 2022
Volume 32 Number 3
March 7, 2022
ISSN: 1094-9453
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MY TURN
n Dmae Lo Roberts
Patti Duncan, my
mixed-race friend
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G
rowing up in rural Oregon, I didn’t lived near a military base where she was part of a
encounter other mixed-race Asians. As an social club with other multiracial girls. She said
adult, I have cherished opportunities to those friendships were empowering because they
talk with mixed-race people about our shared talked about their identities and experiences. Yet
experiences. One person I’ve talked to throughout the racism against her mom continued and kids in
the years is Patti Duncan.
their neighborhood mocked her.
An associate professor of Women, Gender, and
“They put a snake in our mailbox and that
Sexuality Studies at Oregon State
terrified her,” she said. “... And once
University (OSU), Patti Duncan has
they burned something in our front
authored and co-edited several
yard I thought was meant to look like
literary collections such as Tell This
a cross.”
Silence: Asian American Women
Patti said her mom was
Writers and the Politics of Speech,
frightened,
but
the
police
Mothering
in
East
Asian
determined there was “nothing to be
Communities: Politics and Practices,
done.” Another time some boys said
and Women’s Lives around the World:
“something really awful” to her mom
A Global Encyclopedia. At OSU, she’s
while she was watering in their
the editor of Feminist Formations, a
backyard, and she turned the hose
leading scholarly journal in women’s, Patti Duncan, associate professor on full force and sprayed them. Patti
gender, and sexuality studies found at Oregon State University.
loved that response.
at <www.feministformations.org>. She’s also
I too can remember times when neighborhood
co-editing an open-access online digital textbook for kids told my brother and I to “flake off, you
colleges and universities that is scheduled for Chinese!” Hearing my mom tearfully recount how
release this spring.
her co-workers belittled her at the plywood mill
This accomplished woman and I have had similar where she worked as “that little Chinese lady” was
experiences as the daughters of military brides from heartbreaking. Like Patti, those events shaped our
Asia. My Taiwanese mom and Oklahoman dad met lives.
when my mom worked at the PX store in Taiwan
“Witnessing it, experiencing it, but also being
after the Korean War. Patti’s mother was in Seoul, mixed-race and being Asian American myself,”
South Korea, working at a U.S. military base when Patti said, “... it’s like all of the ways that I think
her father, a white American, was stationed there. growing up, being treated like I was exotic or
After they married, her family lived in America. different, or somehow not belonging ... for me, I
Moving to the U.S. became a difficult experience for think it was being mixed-race and struggling
our moms as they left their languages and cultures sometimes with feeling like I’m in this in-between
behind.
space where it’s like you’re never Asian enough, or
Before moving here, my family lived in Japan, you’re never like fully Korean.”
where I recall my happiest childhood times. Patti
I understand and share Patti’s feelings. We’re
lived in Tehran, where her father was stationed, lucky to know each other because it’s been rare in
and she has “very beautiful fond memories of the my life to meet people of my generation who entirely
time living there.”
get what it means to be a mixed-race Asian
Our first experiences with racism occurred in American. Hopefully younger generations are able
America. We were both told not to speak our to connect with other mixed-race youth so they
mothers’ languages. Neither of our mothers had a don’t feel the isolation we once felt. It is my wish
formal education and both grew up in war and they aren’t resigned to the fate of being “out of the
poverty, so it was important for their children to norm.”
excel in school and we were allowed to forget our
For Patti, hope lies in her 11-year-old son and his
first languages.
generation. She says it’s important to her to tell him
“Once I started in public school in the U.S.,” Patti about his family history and identity.
said, “there were incidents of kids calling us names
“He is so proud to be mixed-raced, and he claims
and doing the slanty eyed thing to mock us when we his Korean-ness,” Patti said. “He claims all of it.”
were growing up.”
To listen to a podcast of my and Patti’s
While my brother and I didn’t know any other conversation about being mixed race, please visit
mixed-race kids during our youth, Patti fortunately <www.theimmigrantstory.org/i-claim-it-all>.
Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.