Banana's are yellower on the other side of the ocean

I like this blog; I find that Asian Americans, though we look alike, have a very different mindset from us FOBs (Fresh off the boat, though 1976 can't really be considered fresh can it? - OH! On another aside, I was made a citizen the same day the Guvernator was.) The author of this site had this to say today:

I've often considered it a big difference between Asians and Asian Americans -- that Asians are more likely to grow up as members of a "normative" race/culture and to participate in the confidence and entitlement that that status confers.

I couldn't resist leaving a comment:

Strange to hear you say that - being an FOB who came over when I was 12, and being a 3rd generation Christian (Grandparents + missionaries = mixed up Asian), I've always felt that Asians were mostly taught that you can't buck the system, and you are only part of the whole and for you to act out, is to call attention to yourself in a bad way. That is, to be normal in an Asian society is to not rock the boat. However, this path doesn't lead to confidence or entitlement; it just leads to people not speaking out when they should.

Perhaps it's cause I went to H.S. & college in L.A. I mean, how much more confident or entitled can you be if tons of you are Prom Night royal couples, cheerleaders, etc.?
I remember one of my first trips to the U.S. and going to see my cousin play Basketball at his high school. Now that's confidence and entitlement! The B/W action photo of him executing a shot did more to fuel my ambitions than anything else. Thank the powers that be, it was only ONE influence of ambition and that my natural lazy self won out.

Filed under Reveries & Paranoias.