[W]hile systemic changes are needed, …there is a lot of meaningful work that can be done at a personal level.
Creators:
Britney Ng 吳碧妍 (She/her)
Kelly Zhang 张薇 (She/her)
While there are commonalities among people with the same cultural/ethnic background, no one culture/ethnicity is a monolith. Everyone has their own individual experiences, preferences, and identities that are unique to others despite their similarities in other domains; however, sometimes these differences create tension even amongst people from the same cultural/ethnic groups. As Britney and Kelly detail in this podcast episode, one of the more insidious ways in coethnic diaspora harm each other, when it’s unity that is needed, is intra-ethnic defensiveness. This leads people to denigrate each other, creating harmful separations and divisions within the community. This often entails the use of othering terms such as “white-washed,” “F.O.B.s,” or even “international students.” What other ways do you think coethnic create divisions within their own communities?