When I was Growing Up

I chose to write about this poem from class because it reminded me of a close friend. Not only does the author pretty much have the same last name as her but they're also the same race. Nellie Wong wrote about the internalized oppression she experienced and currently still experiences. Wong feels underprivileged because her skin is “dark.” As she was growing up, she put these weird assumptions in her head that made her feel inferior because she wasn’t “white.” Reading the poem makes me feel really bad, and angry that our society puts such pressures on each other. My friend, I feel has internalized oppression. She may not talk about it directly, but I can tell through her reactions to things people do, or when she talks about high school, fashion, boys and having kids. In a group of friends, usually you all playfully make fun of each other and it’s normal, but sometimes she’ll freak out about random things that are a joke and I think they are things that she oppresses and doesn’t talk about. When she talks about high school she says she never fit in and she was one out of a couple Asians. She always wants to be on top of fashion and talks about it quite often and even dyes her hair so it’s not jet black. And then when talking about guys and having kids, she always talks about white guys and biracial kids, like she never even considered it any other way. My group of friends calls her the “white girl” because we feel as if she’s “whiter” than us. We find it funny, but I’m sure deep down she’s hurting.