The Visibility Mindset

Introduction

Our story is a commonly shared one. We are Asian Americans born in and living in the United States. While we are part of the American culture, we are still balancing the culture of our ethnic origin. We speak English fluently, but because of the differences in how we look, we are often seen as not quite “American” enough and since we are not being raised in our origin country, oftentimes, we are also not “Asian” enough. Throughout this book, we will be using the term Asian Americans to include all individuals of Asian descent but recognize that there are many other terms that can be used to mean the same thing, including Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and often simply Asian.

Speaking generally, Asian parents teach us that we will succeed if we work hard. However, most of us know that hard work in this day and age is just not enough to succeed. We've learned that working hard usually means getting assigned more work instead of praise, raises, or promotions. We see others who did not put the same hours and dedication into their workload as we did, and they excel and get promoted without a clear explanation as to why. We look around and see those of Asian American descent leaving their corporations and starting their entrepreneurial endeavors because they couldn't work within the established system. Asian Americans are often not given the opportunities they deserve in the workplace, and we are here to break down these stereotypes and myths to help guide you ...