The Game Board: Second Generation Chinese American Female Edition

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The Game Board: Second Generation Chinese American Female Edition

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Rev. Lauren Lisa Ng

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March 18, 2021

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Here’s how you play.

Wake up in your safe suburban neighborhood, move

ahead two spaces.

Get dressed in your safe, suburban clothes,

move ahead two spaces.

Mask up to head out, wave

at the neighbor as you drive down

the hill—code for

you live there. Move ahead

one space.

Walk into store and watch

as they stare at your half-hidden face.

The mask, useless. Your onyx hair and

crescent eyes betray

your invisibility. Move back

three spaces. Stand in line,

try to stifle it, but they don’t know

you’ve suffered from allergies

your whole life. The cough

escapes—

move back two spaces.

The cashier speaks, you respond, in your

perfectly perfect

American accented English.

Move ahead three spaces.

Walk back to the car—notice

two men talking. They stop, stare, track

your movement. Muscles tighten, pace quickens, heart

bursts. You’ve drawn

a wild card. Climb in safely,

move ahead one space.

The game changes, of course,

with additional players.

Bring along your white husband, move ahead

three spaces. Bring your half white children,

move ahead, well, logically,

1.5 spaces. Go

where it’s safe and free from hate–

Chinatown, Oakland, East

Bay oh wait—

A virus arrives.

Move back five spaces.

An incumbent falls.

Move ahead one.

His message does not.

Move back two.

A challenger wins.

Move ahead one.

But fear requires no victory.

Move back two.

Vaccines arrive.

Move ahead two.

The virus mutates.

Move back three.

But they all love Asian food.

Move ahead two.

But they still think we’re dirty.

Move back three.

But we work really hard.

Move ahead two.

But we steal their jobs.

Move back three.

But Asian girls are hot.

Lose a turn.

And Asian girls are submissive.

Go back to start.

This they do not realize:

it is a single string that ties

acceptance with

disgust—pulled so

tautly, you just might break.

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Rev. Lauren Lisa Ng is director of Leadership Empowerment at American Baptist Home Mission Societies where she works with innovative and entrepreneurial models of ministry and emerging leaders who pursue them.

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The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.

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