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I remember how much fun it was when I was growing up to see fireworks on the Fourth of July. My parents would bring my brothers and me to the local high school in our Detroit suburb. |
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Frank Wu
on the Fourth of July
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My father reminded us fireworks had been invented in China. My parents had been born there, but they fled the Communists and eventually found their way to the United States — drawn by hope and opportunity.
They had faith in the American Dream. If I came home from school and complained that kids picked on me, my parents told me I should try harder to fit in.
I thought they blamed me. I'm ashamed to admit it now but I was embarrassed of them then: they had accents, ate funny-smelling foods, didn't laugh at the right time when watching TV, and needed my help writing a letter if there was a problem with the phone company.
I realized only recently that my parents blamed themselves, not me. In my parents' daily lives, they faced everything I did, but they accepted it as their fault. They assumed they had brought the problems on themselves, because they had accents and the rest. They figured that because I knew American culture, I would be accepted automatically within it.
Over time, I've come to understand the debt I owe my parents. They did what I would never dream of doing: they moved half way around the world, not for their future, but for mine.
Yet even as I try to follow their example of studying and working hard, I doubt I'll be just like them. Immigrants and their children are bound to make different choices. My parents believed the nail that sticks up is pounded down; I believe the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
They never protested about civil rights, for themselves or anyone else because they literally didn't know the language. I care about civil rights and equality and free speech and dissent, not just for myself but because we need principles to guide a diverse democracy. A little controversy is good thing — a patriotic thing.
Hey, I am my parents' child. But I am an American, too. I like to light my own fireworks — and I want them to go off with a bang.
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