my anthro professor teaches a class on immigration, so i tried talking to her about how my culture discourages seeking treatment for depression (i’m chinese btw), and she told me that “well you’re also american now so you don’t have to restrict yourself to that culture!”, like my culture was just something that i could detach and reattach at will when it’s convenient . how nice of her to assume that i actually identify with american culture strongly enough to “overcome” my association with my native culture. this country has been alienating me all my life, and you’re just adding kindle to the fire.



it doesn’t help that she’s always quick to say “i understand exactly what you’re going through” when she’s a jewish woman who benefits from white privilege. she gets to sit comfortably and ask poc questions in that bubbly voice of hers while my voice is audibly shaking when i try to contribute my experiences. she says her family’s been in america since the 1800s. mine’s been here since the 2000s. seriously don’t preach about how bad it is to silence immigrants in your class when you can’t practice it outside of class. i almost feel like when white people say “i relate to your experience”, they’re actually invalidating it by saying “your suffering is more normal than you think”. you don’t have to relate to my experiences in order to be on my side.

seriously if you want to help my depression, then you can start by not contributing to the constant invalidation that’s been piling up on me ever since i moved to this country as a kid.

sorry i just had to get that off my chest. just goes to show how even academia-educated people can’t respect the experiences of poc.