“There are Asian people in Oklahoma?” — is a common first question I get when I reveal my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Oh god,” (grimace) comes the almost automatic second response.
Given Tulsa’s history, I can’t blame people. For me, those assumptions weren’t abstract; they played out in my everyday life.
My high school years were rough. As you may have already guessed, it was partly — mostly — due to my ethnic background. As a junior in university, I thought I had already buried those memories, but an Instagram reel quickly unearthed them. My high school’s Chinese Club was promoting itself without a single Chinese student in sight…