HEARD / WORD | August 26, 2020

This week, Ashley Lanuza reads “no better” - a poem interrogating the model minority stereotype. The piece is an excerpt from her debut poetry collection, My Heart of Rice: a Poetic Filipino American Experience.

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no better

By Ashley Lanuza

“Model Minority” stereotype overshadows individuality,
but convinces Asians to heighten their superiority.
Within the ethnic hierarchy, even Filipinos are at the low rungs,
yet when you say I can’t date a black person or
“Why do you look Latina?”
your true colorism is showing.
Race against race, unable to form unity in the United States.
Pitted against one another in a form of discrimination,
particularly anti-blackness.
When it’s because of black activists
we have the right to immigrate.
Have you seen what the system has done to our eyes?
Tricked by a blinding oppression
to think we are any better
based on our skin color.
Failing to realize that we’re not white either.
Solidarity only achieved when calling out
the oppression we perpetuate,
in hopes that we no longer have the desire to assimilate.