True or False: All Asians Are the Same

FALSE! Asians are not all the same, and to say that all asians are the same is ignorant and dare I say racist. People say this about Asians not only in regards to their appearance, but culture as well. There are 48 countries that comprise the continent of Asia, and the Asian people. Among these countries, there are similarities, sure, but there are so many differences that make each ethnicity and culture unique- special.

But, in this case we’ll be talking about appearance.

For Asian persons in environments that are heavily dominated by white persons, they are often made to feel as if they have no individualized identity and they consistently get mistaken for another Asian person in the same space as them, or the token asian where their identity is solely based on them being Asian. (*The term space is being used as place of work/industry in this scenario). So, you can see there are two extremes here that are played out all too often- being invisible, or being gawked over.

TikTok user @Jenntranx speaks about the first extreme in one of her videos (video link, here), in which during her time as an ICU nurse, a coworker did not know Jenn’s name during their time working together. A year goes by and another Asian woman started a nursing position with them, and the coworker would now call Jenn that new nurse’s name. For the coworker to have this blip for the first few weeks of working alongside Jenn is one thing, but a whole year? That is blatant disrespect and ignorance on the coworker’s part.

Jenn goes on to acknowledge how she herself can get caucasian blond and brunette girls mixed up from time to time, but that the actual issue at hand is that people cannot distinguish Asians from other Asians. She questions if it is ignorance, racism, or just general lack of caring- and really it’s a combination of those reasons.

As many companies are working towards diversifying their workforce with BIPOC persons (because the [old] white man is not always the best candidate!), it’s important to make BIPOC employees feel welcome and to acknowledge them as an individual. And a key factor in making them feel welcome? Know their name.

At the other end of the spectrum, making a big deal of a BIPOC employee simply because they are not white, and maybe the only i.e. Asian in the company, does no good either. It can put the BIPOC employee in an uncomfortable position and often times coworkers end up planting stereotypes on the BIPOC person, thus another way their identity starts to get stripped away from them in the workplace.

So, why is all of this an important discussion? Because workplace environment is more important than ever. Employees aren’t tolerating poor treatment by leadership and coworkers like they used to.

Here’s a task for you: If you have any BIPOC coworkers, think about what your interactions look like with them, and what your other non-BIPOC coworkers interactions look like with them. Do they get treated differently than your non BIPOC coworkers- do they get invited to happy hours, are they considered for promotions, are there different “rules” that apply to them but non-BIPOC coworkers? Are they quieter than your non-BIPOC coworkers? Are they louder than your non-BIPOC coworkers? Why do you think that could be?