May is deemed to be Asian & Pacific Islander American Heritage month and in honor of that, I discuss different aspects about my experience growing up as a Korean-American. This video is actually a tag video that was inspired by one of my favorite Korean-American YouTubers, Jenn Im. I answer nine different questions , such as “Were you always proud of your heritage?” and “How has being Asian-American affected your relationship with your parents?”

What I’ve come to find regarding the mixed Korean experience growing up in America is that many of our experiences differ regarding how we grew up, how we were perceived, and the perception of ourselves. Though I grew up with an overall positive experience as a mixed race Korean-American, I did have some sets of challenges. Many of these challenges dealt with how I dealt with the perception of being Korean growing up. Because Asians were not the dominant people group in my hometown, there were a lot of stereotypes, misconceptions, and disrespectful comments towards me. Being Korean (or Asian for that matter because most of the people I grew up with didn’t know the difference between Korean, Japanese, or Chinese) meant that I was good at math, I was good at video games, and my all time favorite, I eat dog. As a kid, these comments can have a negative impact on your self-perception. After a while, I went through a phase where I didn’t want to publicly show the world that I was Korean.

Looking back at my life at that point, I realize that I could have had it far worse than just receiving disrespectful and ignorant comments. My father and his parents dealt with actual discrimination, racial segregation, and even violent racial incidents as African-Americans. So in the end, I feel that my life wasn’t so bad after all. Please watch the video for some more thoughts on my Korean-American experience!