Elephants and Tea - One Herd - 20

Our Voices
old, belonging to the great-granddaughter
of the Chief of my Native tribe.
I started asking questions at home about
the meaning behind the slurs those little
hate parroting brats called me: Chink,
PingPong, Injun, Redskin, Savage, and
others. This prompted my first discussion
about racism. We all sat at the kitchen
table, my grandparents, my mom, and
me. I remember learning about where
hate stems from-ignorance. I was told
that some people fear what they don't
understand. That racism is a learned
behavior with no real substance behind
it, aside from hate. I learned how to spell
" prejudice " and understood it at age five.
I am a strong and proud woman of
are complaining. " My grandpa, a United
States Marine through and through, stood
up, looked into the reverend's eyes, and
said, " Well, aren't you a Christian . . . I
wouldn't want my family anywhere near
a piece of work like you, anyhow. " The
reverend pleaded with my grandpa not to
take it personally or cause a scene.
The next Sunday, that church was half
empty. The congregation was completely
lopsided, since my family took up most of
the pews on the right side of the church.
Once my grandma informed her sisters and
brother of the encounter with the reverend,
my whole family immediately banded together
and left the Lutheran church and
migrated to The First Presbyterian Church.
My mom and aunt were very small at the
time, and even though our family had only
two Asians in the late 1960s, every single
one of my grandma's Irish blood kin stood
strong in unity. My cousins and I were all
baptized and raised Presbyterian, and my
family back home still attends the same
beautiful brick church. Oh, and thanks
to those two Asians in our family, we now
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ONE HERD ISSUE 2025
span three generations, with a total of nine
family members.
The first time I understood how it felt
to be a target of racism, I was still on the
playground of my elementary school. I
knew I looked different than all the other
kids, being the only non-White, but I
didn't realize that my uniqueness was a
beaming marquee, signaling the other
kids to use that against me. They would
call me " Chink " and pull the corners of
their eyes back as far as they could to try
to emulate my gorgeous, almond-shaped
eyes. They would sing that good ole' 80's
playground classic, " Chinese, Japanese,
dirty knees, look at these... " I would do
my little kid clapback and add on, " OK
____, you're not smart, you get C's and
I'm neither of those ethnicities. " When
they learned of my Native heritage, they
attacked that, too. And not just the other
kids, the teachers and administrators
joined in as well. I remember being forced
to be a pilgrim in our class's Thanksgiving
program. They really did put a white paper
pilgrim hat atop the head of a five-year
Blackfeet Nation descent, a tribally enrolled
citizen of Cochiti Pueblo, and I'm
of Korean heritage. My husband is Black,
and our beautiful children are a perfect
mixture of us both. As a mom, woman,
minority, citizen, and healthcare recipient,
it is important that I speak on the
systemic hate that has trickled into our
healthcare system.
Despite advancements in medicine,
minority communities continue to experience
disproportionate challenges
accessing quality health services and
receiving holistic treatment. Most racial
and ethnic minority groups in the United
States are more likely to be uninsured,
less likely to have access to primary care,
and often receive lower-quality health
services. These disparities are not only
alarming but also indicative of a deeper,
more insidious problem rooted in a lack
of cultural competence and implicit biases
within our healthcare system.
Like millions of others, I have been diagnosed
with a few " anxiety disorders. "
Unfortunately, my anxiety, historically
referred to as " female hysteria, " has become
the default answer from several of
my care-team members. The frustration
I have when trying to explain my symptoms,
or any ailment that is plaguing me,
reminds me of when I was a child begging
for something that I couldn't quite
articulate yet.
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Elephants and Tea - One Herd

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