By virtue of my traditions, and my community, I worked hard to ensure that I was accepted as part of the traditional family of America.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I came from a traditional family, and it was an exciting but challenging transition to move to America and live on my own. The world around me was suddenly so different.
My family is Native American, and I was raised with Native American ceremonies.
The traditional American family has always been the foundation for success in America.
Being an American is a state of mind, and to be in a family is to feel the power of belonging, the power of your roots. Family is a tree, the strength of a tree, the roots, the leaves, the past and the present, the future, the fruits, the seeds.
When I finally gave up any hope of doing anything representative of the American family, I actually seemed to have tapped into other people's weirdness in that way.
When I think of my work, I'm aware that I'm American and African at all points and times. And without a doubt, my experience and understanding of America was shaped by having immigrant parents.
No matter how American I become, I'm considered part of the Chinese community by my own family.
I love America, and I love to say that my family is American.
I was brought up in a very ordinary family, in fact, a worker's family. Both my father and mother were ordinary citizens.
My Native American heritage was not embraced by our family, and we grew up African-American, so I didn't have a lot of access or history to that line of my family.