Pearl Tan Quotes

I'm Australian. I'm assimilated. I was born here - how ocker do I have to be?

I see racism as a cancer. It is a cancer growing in us. Unless we stop it, it vegetates and grows bigger which hurts every one of us.

Sometimes I feel embarrassed because I'll tell the kids if someone is driving really slow or cutting in, I'll say "Bloody Asian drivers." But I feel justified in saying it because I'm Asian.

I guess racism is sort of like a form of discrimination but it's just that you classify people in different colours and different races. I think everyone is born with an inherent, the inherence to discriminate.

My friends often say I'm the most racist person they know against Asians. And it's sort of like, "If I make the joke first, then I have the power and I'm holding the cards and you're not going to put me down for that."

My family brought me up to be very assimilated and accepting of everyone. But I do get frustrated when I see other Asians who behave in a way that reflects a stereotype.

I came from a war-torn country and I was a victim of that racism because within tribes, within political lines, people were fighting. The first thing that I like to fight is racism because I know what it means, how it destroys the fabric of my society, of my wellbeing.