[et_pb_section admin_label=”section” global_module=”471″ fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off” background_color=”#ffffff” inner_shadow=”on” parallax=”off” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”3″][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_menu admin_label=”Fullwidth Menu” menu_id=”2″ background_color=”#ffffff” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” submenu_direction=”downwards” fullwidth_menu=”off” dropdown_menu_animation=”fade” \/][et_pb_fullwidth_slider admin_label=”Fullwidth Slider” show_arrows=”on” show_pagination=”on” auto=”off” auto_ignore_hover=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” remove_inner_shadow=”off” background_position=”default” background_size=”default” hide_content_on_mobile=”off” hide_cta_on_mobile=”off” show_image_video_mobile=”off” header_font_size=”46″ body_font_size=”16″ custom_button=”off” button_text_size=”20″ button_border_width=”2″ button_border_radius=”3″ button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_border_radius_hover=”3″ button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ top_padding=”700px”] [et_pb_slide background_image=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/Emma-Li_main_web.jpg” background_position=”default” background_size=”default” background_color=”#ffffff” alignment=”center” background_layout=”dark” allow_player_pause=”off” header_font_select=”default” body_font_select=”default” custom_button=”off” button_font_select=”default” button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_slide] [\/et_pb_fullwidth_slider][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Emma-Li Thompson was resistant to the Mandarin courses her mom enrolled her in in the fourth grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember being so angry and frustrated and humiliated because there are other Asian kids in that class and I was the only one, in my perception, that wasn’t doing well,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Thompson, who is Chinese, is a transracial adoptee. She was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona by white parents. Her opposition to Mandarin courses, she said, was an example of her internalizing racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that I was already very different from the other kids in my school,\u201d said Thompson, a 21-year-old student at Arizona State University. \u201cI look different. I wanted to be similar to them. But I couldn\u2019t do that if I was trying to learn Chinese or if I was trying to connect back to my heritage or my culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up in Scottsdale, a predominantly white neighborhood where three percent of the population is Asian, forced Thompson to question her place not only in public life but also in her own home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up listening to Fox news,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI listened to Rush Limbaugh, I listened to Glenn Beck and Bill O\u2019reilly talk about how they hated people like me.\u201d<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_audio admin_label=”Audio” artist_name=”Ericka Guevarra” album_name=”Next Generation Radio” image_url=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/EmmaLi_baby.jpg” background_layout=”dark” title_font_size=”26″ caption_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” audio=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/Ericka_Final.wav” title=”Listen to Emma-Li’s story”]<\/p>\n
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[\/et_pb_audio][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_testimonial admin_label=”Testimonial” author=”Emma-Li Thompson” url_new_window=”off” quote_icon=”on” use_background_color=”on” background_color=”#ededed” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” portrait_border_radius=”90″ portrait_width=”90″ portrait_height=”90″ body_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_testimonial][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Thompson remembered a time when she was listening to Rush Limbaugh with her dad. The topic was about George Zimmerman passing as a ‘white Hispanic.’<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad decided to tell me that there are only two races: there is black and there is white, and anyone who wasn\u2019t black was white,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
She questioned what her dad thought of her as a Chinese-American woman.
\n\u201cDoes that mean that he thinks that I\u2019m white? Is that why he has lightened my skin in some photos when I was younger?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson said her experience at home didn\u2019t make things easier for her. She hated school, had a difficult time making friends and didn\u2019t like how she looked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat kind of toxic environment is not suitable, especially for a kid of color. And my parents just didn\u2019t see it and plus they were part of it too.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until college that Thompson was surrounded by the diversity she said she needed when she was growing up.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Thompson said that it was difficult to have discussions about adoption and race without having her voice drowned out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the whole white privilege aspect that starts playing into adoptive parents voices being the main ones that are heard,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cAdoptees do have feelings and that we grow up with a lot of hurt and a lot of internalized racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Thompson\u2019s dream is to get a Master\u2019s in social work and fix the system that brought her to Scottsdale.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s part of my own personal duty as a transracial adoptee to help other families or potential families,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cI know what kind of change I want to see in the adoption system so I want to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery admin_label=”Gallery: Emma-Li” gallery_ids=”695,979,978,977,976,975,931,381,270″ fullwidth=”on” show_title_and_caption=”on” show_pagination=”off” background_layout=”light” auto=”off” hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” caption_font_size=”14″ caption_all_caps=”off” title_font_size=”16″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code: Vimeo Video”]<iframe src=”https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/151110286″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <p><a href=”https:\/\/vimeo.com\/151110286″>Emma-Li Thompson<\/a> from <a href=”https:\/\/vimeo.com\/user7327839″>egue<\/a> on <a href=”https:\/\/vimeo.com”>Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code: Map”]<iframe src=”https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m24!1m8!1m3!1d54609841.86784163!2d151.4067941!3d33.3418086!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m13!3e6!4m5!1s0x872b08d9a7772c97%3A0x26d2e412188fe618!2sScottsdale%2C+AZ!3m2!1d33.4941704!2d-111.92605189999999!4m5!1s0x3430cc50f7411411%3A0x893cf6012622dea2!2sJingdezhen%2C+Jiangxi%2C+China!3m2!1d29.268836!2d117.17841999999999!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1452037859083″ width=”830″ height=”450″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border:0″ allowfullscreen><\/iframe>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
At three years old, Emma-Li Thompson was adopted from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi in northeast China. She spent the next 18 years 7,050 miles away in Arizona.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/NPR-placeholder-1920×15.gif” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
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[\/et_pb_image][et_pb_team_member admin_label=”Person” saved_tabs=”all” name=”Ericka Guevarra” image_url=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/NextGenRadio109_web.jpg” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” header_font_size=”18″ body_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Ericka Cruz Guevarra studies journalism and international relations at San Francisco State University. She is KQED News\u2019 first Raul Ramirez Diversity Fund intern and has produced stories on everything from San Francisco\u2019s contentious Proposition F debate to Filipino-Americans who don’t learn their family’s native language.<\/p>\n
A native of the California bay area, naturally, she says \u201chella.\u201d<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_team_member][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” background_color=”#1e73be” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”3″][et_pb_fullwidth_portfolio admin_label=”Fullwidth Portfolio” global_parent=”308″ fullwidth=”on” show_title=”on” show_date=”off” background_layout=”dark” auto=”off” title=”More from Next Generation Radio”] [\/et_pb_fullwidth_portfolio][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” global_module=”308″ fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off” background_image=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/NPR-placeholder-1920×15.gif” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”3″][et_pb_fullwidth_image global_parent=”308″ admin_label=”Fullwidth Image” src=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/NPR-placeholder-1920×15.gif” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” animation=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” use_overlay=”off”] [\/et_pb_fullwidth_image][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raised ‘White:’ Chinese Adoptee Struggles in Scottsdale by Ericka Guevarra Emma-Li Thompson was resistant to the Mandarin courses her mom enrolled her in in the fourth grade. \u201cI just remember being so angry and frustrated and humiliated because there are other Asian kids in that class and I was the only one, in my perception, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":293,"featured_media":931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[19,119,14],"project_tag":[41],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/293"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}