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when we moved to Queens in New York
I'll never forget it
the neighborhood that I moved into first was occupied by
Irish immigrants then Italian immigrants then Jewish immigrants so we were the new
immigrants
and literally the new kid on the block so
I remember very vividly
boys across the street
screaming in yelling racial slurs at me the first day that I moved in
and it really deeply affected me
and I of course returned some
choice words to them
but fortunatly within a short while
they became my best friends and I call some of them my best friends even today
the mission it's really approaching
our differences because it'll always be differences
uh... if not from our background in our culture it's how we look
and what we where and what we eat
and so
if we approach
our differences with curiosity if we can the achieve that mission
and change people's way of thinking
then that's something to look forward to in the future
when I moved down here to Fort Worth and to this day on occasion
I get the question well what are you
and
in my smart way I'll say well I'm a human being
and they'll say well you know really what are you
and at least I get asked the question
rather than there being an assumption
and I so appreciate that
and then then it becomes a conversation the dialogue begins
by understanding each of our differences
as opposed to
having a preconceived notion
of what we are
it will typically begin with
a phrase like **
any relation to coral
and then also a second cousin twice removed
and they'll say that's not the truth I'm chinese
and there are sometime also sometimes I get asked the question about what
uh... where in asia are is my family from so again it it's qualifying in
qualifying
who I am and what my identity is
hopefully someone will walk away from such a conversation and say not only is
this individual's family from China
and he grew up in new york
but he's also
hopefully
good human being
and
we actually have more in common that we do
have different
from each other