Thread: For Fil-Ams & other people of color, the "American Dream" often means toiling away just to obtain a small piece of the spoils that were violently ripped away from your community. 1/
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Second-gen AsAms like me grow up oblivious about our own histories because the US education system purposely withholds info about it, & our parents try to outrun their trauma by never sharing their experiences, instead pushing their children toward an assimilation sleepwalk. 2/
AsAms realize too late we've inherited a deal with the devil we never agreed to: we can keep our language, but only if we speak it privately. Our food, if we serve it. Our culture, if it upholds the illusion of America as a benevolent melting pot that saved us from ourselves. 3/
But AsAms aren't the only ones ignorant of this history—Few Americans know of the Philippine-American War & the atrocities the US committed. Even fewer understand how the US's ongoing legacy of war, destruction & colonization in Asia is a major reason the AsAm diaspora exists. 4/
Americans aren't taught about how centuries of exploitation of the Philippines' resources by Western powers has led to most of its workforce immigrating & becoming a global servant class called OFWs. Instead, they're taught that poverty is inherent to Filipinx culture. 5/