Dear Young Michelle: A Note To My Younger Self
We asked leaders to share a note to their younger selves about moments that have defined their lives and lessons learned from them. Read on for reflections from Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC’s Senior Director of Strategic Communications, Michelle Boykins.
Hey Chelle,
Growing up you will have many different experiences, but the best thing you can do is to embrace friends of different ethnicities and cultures because you will be richer for the experience. Your friends will open your world and help you shed that nightmare of seeing a cross burned on your lawn because people didn’t like the color of your skin. I hate that you had to learn about racism at only six years old.
Sadly, the world will still have its share of bigotry and prejudice as you grow but you’ll learn that most people embrace the belief that love is love, no matter the color of skin. Your friends will show you how to celebrate Lunar New Year, Diwali, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
As you take it all in, there is a comfort in knowing that your friends are not that different from you. Discrimination can occur just as easily within your own ethnicity as it does from others. You’ll learn that there are parts of your African American history that are not so different in Asian American history. The brutal murder of Emmett Till galvanized the African American community just as the equally brutal murder of Vincent Chin spurred Asian Americans in their civil rights movement.
There’s so much more that you’ll come to learn and appreciate because your parents encourage you to find the best people based on the content of their character, not their ethnicity.
I want you to grow up grateful for the diversity that you’re exposed to in your little microcosm of the world. You’ll relish the moment when your nephews don’t notice the diversity in a movie because the casting reflects the world they’ve grown up in. Embrace it all because when the time comes for you to take a leap of faith in your own journey, you’ll jump in with both feet into a fulfilling job, surrounded by people from another ethnicity and culture who will embrace you right back. And you will continue to be a better person for the experience.
So, the next time you wake up from the same nightmare, be comforted that when they burned that cross on your lawn, it didn’t ignite hate within you. It ignited a desire for you to gain a better understanding of the world and your place in it.
Sincerely,
Your resilient and stronger adult self
