Neither Fish nor Fowl: Locating Identity in the Gap between Race and Culture

Abstract

This article discusses the author’s experience of growing up in 1970s rural America as a person of Chinese descent in a predominantly White and Latinx community. The author, the daughter of American-born Chinese parents, examines the dichotomy between race and culture and its impact on her sense of self and clinical work. Drawing from personal encounters and observations, the author examines the lived experience of tokenism and of negotiating explicit and implicit boundaries surrounding racial and cultural expectations and stereotypes. The article also explores America’s immigration policies and history of racial exclusion, and how these historical realities impacted her family narrative and American identity. The author contemplates how her childhood experience of inclusion and exclusion continues to shape her perception of racial and cultural otherness.

Keywords:

• race
• culture
• ethnicity
• identity
• immigration
• tokenism

Notes

2 See The Washington Post, June 16, 2015 for the full text of Donald Trump’s announcement of his presidential bid (Washington Post Staff, 2015).

3 “Anchor baby” is a term that refers to a child born to a non-citizen mother in a country that has birthright citizenship. It is often used pejoratively, especially when used in reference to people of color (Lexico, 2009).

4 My son (ironically) suggested I title this article “Growing up White in America, a Chinese American Story.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Chuck

Karen Chuck, JD, LCSW-R, is a graduate of the William Alanson White Institute’s Psychoanalytic Training Program, Columbia University School of Social Work, and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Additionally, she is a supervisor in the White Institute’s Intensive Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program and secretary of the White Society Board. She is particularly interested in the intersection of legal and psychoanalytic training as well as issues relating to race, ethnicity and culture. She has a private practice in New York City and Chappaqua, New York where she sees individuals and couples. She is also a divorce mediator.