Do expat Cambodian women have a responsibility to be role models for women in Cambodia ?
Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2020 1:27 am
I recently saw a video on LinkedIn of an Australian news reader.
She was of Aisan descent and I thought very likely Cambodian.
She seemed like a very nice woman, and had obviously done extremely well in life.
I commented on the video (where I think she was chatting away about life in America where she'd recently moved), and I commented saying what a pleasure it was to see a woman of south east Asian descent doing so well in life, and so happy. I didn't get a response to the comment.
A couple of weeks later I saw another video of hers (a mutual connection who was a friend of hers was commenting on her videos which is why I came to notice them), in which she was saying what a shame it was that racists would comment on her Asian descent, when in fact she wasn't Asian, she was Australian.
I commented saying that whilst I respected her right to self-identify, I thought it was a shame that she couldn't embrace both her Australianness and her Cambodian/Asian heritage, and be a role model for Cambodian women who haven't had the opportunities that she has and made such brilliant use of. Although I didn't say it, I actually thought that if anyone was racist, it was someone who effectively denied their own heritage.
She deleted the comment and then blocked me.
Was I right to raise this point, or is it just up to the woman to decide whether she wants to embrace her Asian heritage or not ?
She was of Aisan descent and I thought very likely Cambodian.
She seemed like a very nice woman, and had obviously done extremely well in life.
I commented on the video (where I think she was chatting away about life in America where she'd recently moved), and I commented saying what a pleasure it was to see a woman of south east Asian descent doing so well in life, and so happy. I didn't get a response to the comment.
A couple of weeks later I saw another video of hers (a mutual connection who was a friend of hers was commenting on her videos which is why I came to notice them), in which she was saying what a shame it was that racists would comment on her Asian descent, when in fact she wasn't Asian, she was Australian.
I commented saying that whilst I respected her right to self-identify, I thought it was a shame that she couldn't embrace both her Australianness and her Cambodian/Asian heritage, and be a role model for Cambodian women who haven't had the opportunities that she has and made such brilliant use of. Although I didn't say it, I actually thought that if anyone was racist, it was someone who effectively denied their own heritage.
She deleted the comment and then blocked me.
Was I right to raise this point, or is it just up to the woman to decide whether she wants to embrace her Asian heritage or not ?
