i dream of being possible

perpetual foreigner? what do?

Okay. So. So.

still thinking about this ridiculous ask tw: for gif in linked post. my response mentioned that Asians trying to become ‘native” is a bad bad thing.

i can”t stop thinking about all the asian american1 ppl i”ve seen talking about the perpetual foreigner thing many Asians have to deal with.

and it is making me realize that, a lot of Asians seem to misunderstand why we are perpetual foriegners. and, in doing so, the end goal for deal with this often seems to be acceptance or assimilation to ‘american” society. or something.

like, the question seems to be about who is american, and who isn”t.

all of which, of course, not only side steps the actual problem (and solution), but also makes us complicit in Indigenous genocide

if we have, as end goal, the desire to fit into and legitimize settler states, we are participating in genocide

and not in a ‘different,” poc exempt way that white supremacy does, but in the same way.

as Andrea Smith states, one of the purposes of white supremacy using three logics is to allow people moslty impacted by one logic to mobilize the other logics to get ahead.

attempting to deal with the perpetual foreigner problem (as logic of orientalism) via legitimizing a settler state is to mobilize the logic of Indigenous genocide (or ‘the disappearing Native” in something closer to Smith”s own words).2