Our names are constantly made fun of in America and non viets always wonder why we have ‘English’ names. The only way to fit in and be taken seriously in this country is to erase our real names and replace it with something like Mimi, Julia, Henry, etc just to be accepted.
To stand in front of a vietnamese owned business and laugh at the name because it sounds like the english word ‘bitch’ or ‘fuck’ or whatever.. Actions similar to that only goes to support the trivialization of vietnamese names. Making us ashamed of our names in turn makes us ashamed of ourselves. The result is internalized hatred.
Non viets do not understand how we’ve all grown up hating ourselves and loving E/A. Non viets do not understand how my mother escaped from Vietnam during the war and came here hoping for a good life, only to become ashamed of her name once she learned its English meaning and immediately changed it. Non viets do not understand that in nail salons, to be successful is to speak english so YOU won’t have a difficult time. Non viets do not understand that everything we do is to fit in and be accepted by Americans.
It’s terrible what we have to go through every day and the path of unlearning all this internalized hate is a difficult one. I am proud of being Vietnamese and I will never let ANYONE take that away from me. I’m here for all the Viets who are unlearning internalized hatred, who’ve been told they look Korean/Japanese and took it as a compliment, who’ve been ashamed of their names, who had their language called ugly, who’ve changed their names to English ones…. I’m here for all the Viets who deal with all this shit on a regular fucking basis and are not giving up. I love you all so much and I’m so proud of you. Vietnamese is not ugly, Vietnamese is beautiful.
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