fan mail

i got this today in response to a column i wrote in my high school paper four years ago:

Hi Lisa,

Apologies ahead of time, if this intrudes upon your
time. No, I'm not a stalker (famous last words). I
recently stumbled upon an article you wrote "Half
Chinese, half Filipino, all American, and proud of
it". I plugged in your name, and it led me to this
email address, so I figured I'd write. I can totally
relate to many of the points you made. I'm actually
"wholly" chinese, born in the heart of manhattan. It
does suck quite a bit when people expect you to be a
certain way. Although I respect my background, and
even cherish it in some ways, it doesn't automatically
depict or define who I am. I grew up in a very
"white" neighborhood. It's always been and continues
to be a struggle to fit in, just because I'm not
"chinese" enough or "american" enough. You don't hear
a whole lot about asian discrimination... but it
exists unfortunately. How about just human? I figure
i'm a decent human, even a really nice one! I too,
get really tired of preconcieved expectations of a
person I look like. It stinks people don't take the
time to find out how multi-faceted an individual can
be. I don't know who to blame for it, or if anyone
can be blamed for it. Is it just human nature to
judge? In a part-time job I held a while back... I
had to deal with someone writing a check to pay for
something.. their ID didn't match anything on the
check. So I called the manager, and I was accused of
being racist.. because you chinks are all alike. That
infuriated me... it didn't matter what race the other
person was.. but it did remind me how things haven't
changed very much. I pride myself on giving people a
fair shake independent of backgrounds or general
opinions, and I'd wish more people would.

Ok, I just babbled a lot. I just wanted to say thanks
for addressing some of this stuff in your writings and
participating in causes that educate.

Thanks for reading...

Tom :)