The first time I went to Japan was through a study abroad program. Once stripped of the context of being in America, I was able to experience how important that context could be in creating stereotypes. It was not just the native Japanese people that mislabelled me, but fellow study abroad attendants from around the globe. “But where are you from, really?” To this, I always have the same answer: “I am American”.

In fact, research suggests that many Asian American students view white people as the only real or authentic Americans.

–Model Minorities and Perpetual Foreigners, pg77

I was much more prepared during my second time in Japan when I began working as an assistant language teacher. I wanted to dismantle the idea that the American label can only be applied to those who fit a certain phenotype. My self-introduction presentation featured demographic maps of New York and graphs that detailed the linguistic diversity of various cultural hubs. Current projections show that the number of immigrants in America will jump to one-in-three Americans within a few short decades. This coupled with recent data that points towards an increase in interracial marriages paints a picture that is far from the “white English speaker” that serves as placeholder for American today.

Time will eventual blur those rigid racial lines on its own but in the meantime it is paramount for educators to further break down these walls.