Family History
My father was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States with my grandmother when he was 9 years old. He is half Filipino and most likely half white, but he never met his biological father, and my grandmother was very ashamed of the situation and never talked about his father. My father was a Navy brat to his stepfather, so along with my grandmother and two sisters, they moved around all across the Western United States; places like Hawaii, Southern California, and Alaska. My father’s stepfather was a very abusive man, and often physically abused both my father and grandmother. Having a troubled childhood, my father wanted the best for me and my family, making it his mission to treat us with love and respect, rather than hate and anger. Luckily, I never spent much time with my father’s stepfather. I instead was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with my grandmother and her side of the family, eating delicious homemade Filipino food and hearing old stories from the Philippines. I owe a lot to my grandmother for the person I am today and am thankful that I was exposed to Filipino culture growing up. None of my father’s side of the family has had the opportunity to get a higher education, so this definitely has inspired me to go on to get my master’s degree and hopefully someday a Ph.D. I feel that the family history of my father’s side has influenced my career choice in being a helping professional for those who are less fortunate or are in need, especially those who are victims of domestic abuse. As a community member, I feel that Filipino culture has instilled a sense of hospitality and thinking about my community as a whole rather than individual families living by each other. Growing up in a white community, being of another race other than white was a challenge. My race was often misidentified and I was being called racial slurs that were not even directed towards Filipinos. I think this led to me assimilating to be more like the white rural culture I was surrounded with. The image to the right reads as Top left: My grandmother; Top right: My father; Bottom left: My aunt; Bottom right: My cousin
My mother was born and raised in southwest Washington, in a town called Cathlamet, Washington. Cathlamet is a very small town with a population of around 800 people. It is a logging and fishing community. I too was raised in the town and grew up with a very similar childhood to my mother as far as playing sports, fishing, and spending a lot of time outdoors. My mother is mostly white of western European descent and is 1/8th Chinook Native American, which is sadly unrecognized by the United States. My mother’s side of the family has lived in southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon for generations. My mother grew up having a lot of family around and the family name was very recognizable. This was a blessing and a curse, as word read fast throughout town, whether they were the truth or rumors. Growing up in a rural community pushed me towards education as I wanted a career where I did not have to rely on my body from doing physical labor like most people in the town. Professionally, it helped me understand what a good supervisor should be from hearing stories about my mother’s bosses treating her poorly and unfairly. Lastly, the community aspect of a rural town taught me that other people may not treat you the same if you are of a different race than them, and that should be something in the back of my mind as I engage with different communities moving forward. The image to the left is my favorite food, Lumpia, a Filipino spring roll.
Academic Racial Autobiography
I grew up in Cathlamet, WA which is a very white, conservative, small, rural town. I went to the St. James Family Center for preschool. As far as I can remember, all the staff there was white. Most of the other students were white as well, except for one of my friends who were Hispanic. After preschool, I went to JA Wendt Elementary School. All the teachers, administrators, and paraeducators were white. Out of around 100 kids in the elementary school (K-5), there were only four black students, six Hispanic students, and the rest were white. After 5th grade, I entered John C. Thomas Middle School (grades 6-8). My physical education teacher was half African-American, half white. The rest of the staff at the middle school were white. As far as students, there were three black students, four Hispanic students, and the rest were white students. For high school, I attended Wahkiakum High School. Being in the same community as my
other schools, the race of the staff and students followed the same trend. It was not until high school that I started to question this trend and began wondering the reasons behind it. All of the staff in the high school was white as well as the students, except for 4 black students and 2 Hispanic students. After high school, I attended Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA for two years. The faculty diversity
percentages were as follows: 91.4% white, 3.2% Asian, 2.6% African American, 2.2% multi-ethnic, and 0.06% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. The diversity of the
undergraduate student population was as follows: 51.2% white, 17.1% Hispanic, 11.6% unknown, 7.9% multi-ethnic, 4.4% Asian, 4% African-American, 2.9% Middle-Eastern, and 0.9% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. After attending Central Washington University, I transferred to Portland State University. The faculty diversity demographics were as follows: 86.8% white, 5.9% Asian, 3.5% African American, 3.4% multi-ethnic, and 0.4 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. The undergraduate student demographics
were as follows: 52% white, 9.5% Asian, 17.1% Latino, 4.9% Middle Eastern, 3.9% African American, 0.5% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 5.1% other.
Unfortunately, I did not learn much about race until I got into college. Prior to college I really only knew of other races and some historical context of what oppressed groups went through, but this was from a white-centric historical perspective. When I got into college, especially at Portland State University, I was finally exposed to people of different cultures and races that I could interact with and learn from. This was also the first time where I had teachers that were not white. I started to learn about generational trauma and how oppressed groups are still being affected today by things that have happened hundreds of years ago. Learning from other cultures, I was able to develop more of a keen eye as to how racism is inconspicuously carried out through today. I also
started to develop more of a systems perspective and began to understand the ways systemic racism is carried out like with the mass incarceration rates of black people. Getting into graduate school, I got the chance to take a deeper look at my own racial identity and how my white privilege is carried out. Even though I am half Filipino, I still look white enough to reap the benefits of white privilege. I started to stop viewing myself as having two cultural identities and began accepting the cultural parts of me that I am ashamed of having.
Racial Climate
As you have read in my prior storybook components, I grew up in a very rural,
small town with very little diversity. There was only one person of color who was Black in my class growing up, June. June had moved to Cathlamet in the fourth grade and we immediately became good friends. While we spent a lot of time together at school, I did not realize at the time that she must have felt so alone and isolated with the lack of diversity with students and the staff. A lot of my peers were not welcoming of June and often excluded her from extracurricular activities like birthday parties. I remember some of my friends asking me why I was hanging out with her like it was some kind of crime. One time during P.E. when we were running laps around the track, I remember the teacher was telling June that she should be faster than the rest of the girls because she “had an extra muscle in her legs”. Another time while we were playing basketball, the teacher expected June to know how to play just because she was Black. Luckily, this teacher no longer is at that school, and hopefully no longer teaches anywhere. Being in fourth grade I didn’t comprehend the impact that this must have had on June and is probably still something that affects her today. At the end of eighth grade, my class had a graduation field trip to Wild Waves. It was going to be my first time riding a roller coaster and I was really excited. After going on a few water slides, we finally decided to get in line for the roller coaster. The line was really long and it felt like we were there for hours. Myself, June, and a few other of our friends were in line, and I remember looking around and noticing June was the only person of color in sight. This must have been extremely hard for her being from a completely white school and not even able to see representation on a field trip to a different part of the state. As we got to the end of the line they started to put us on the ride, but as I looked back the conductor stopped June and said that she could not go on the coaster because of her hair. The conductor said that her hair was too big and there was a chance that it could get caught on the ride. Obviously this was a blatant racist attempt at keeping her off the ride. June still wanted us to have the chance to ride on the coaster, but we all got off with her to go make a complaint to our teachers. I remember sitting with June afterwards and she started to cry saying to herself “what is wrong with me”. I felt so sorry for her and tried to console her letting her know that there was nothing wrong with her or her hair, and that there was something wrong with the person that denied her. It was at this point that I realized June must have been dealing with situations like these her whole life, but never telling me probably for fear that I would not understand.
Critical Reflection
One of the learning materials that has resonated with me most this quarter is A
Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki. This resource resonated with me because it gave me the chance to learn about real American history. I always knew that I was taught a white-centric American history in elementary, middle school, and even high school, but after reading A Different Mirror I realized it was more false than I even imagined. Another reason why this book resonated with me so much is that Takaki not only wrote about the representation of minorities, but more importantly weaved a tale of how they have essentially built America’s infrastructure, economy, and culture. This book made me realize that there is a lot of material that I have been taught that I need to unlearn. I hope that this book and others like it that tell the real side of American history can be
adopted into school curriculums. This is one book that I will definitely hang on to and refer back to years to come. Another learning resource that resonated with me is We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang. I really like this book because it serves as a wake-up call for Americans about how racism has not disappeared but has transformed into more covert racism including but not limited to mortgage discrimination, disparities in healthcare, and disparities in education. This book does a great job of providing a useful lens for looking at the recent tragedies and protests that have struck the United
States. I like that Chang gives context to the reasons behind protesting like oppressors keeping their power and benefiting from keeping people silenced. Another reason this book resonated with me so much is that Chang uses his personal experiences as an Asian American to tell stories of racism that he suffered from. As a fellow Asian American, it is comforting to read about someone going through some of the same struggles that I have gone through and to see representation in the learning materials. After this class is over I intend to refer to the professional competencies rubric to keep track on how I can continue to advance with social justice. I also want to become a multicultural competent counselor, which involves commitment to lifelong learning and exposure to working with many different cultures. Continuing education courses are required as well and will give me the opportunity to brush up on my learning as I progress. Lastly, I think it will be important to attend conferences around multicultural counseling so that I can collaborate and learn from my peers.