The author, NBC News producer Jamie Nguyen, with her mother, who was pregnant when she fled Communist Vietnam in search of a better life. Her mother named her after the Bionic Woman, Jamie Summers — the show was popular, and it was the only American name her mother knew.I didn’t understand why, but I wanted to be blonde and blue-eyed. I told my mom I wanted to be like the other girls in my class.
I didn’t appreciate our family story. My grandmother, mother and her siblings fled Vietnam to escape Communism with dreams of a better future. That’s how I grew up. Now that I have daughter, it’s so different seeing it from her perspective. My husband is Cuban and I’m Vietnamese, so we lovingly call her our Cubnamese American baby.
I can’t recall ever openly talking about race in our house. What I do remember is having it drilled into me that I had to work harder than everyone else. That I couldn’t compare myself to others because it didn’t matter what the others did. What did matter was what I did. College wasn’t a question. It was a minimum requirement.
Growing up, Jamie Nguyen was sheltered from the hardships her mother endured, but always knew she was expected to work and study hard to make her family's sacrifices worth it. Now she's a mom herself.For my own daughter, I want her to experience the world with an open mind and take the risks that I never thought I could. I want her to know it’s OK to fail. It’s OK to ask for help. I marvel at her confidence and how easily she embraces her identity.
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…but still no discussion about the accepted culture of violence in the black community, ?
Tomorrow maybe better,every living hopes for better days ahead.
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