The Racist Dictionary of America

In this still life series, I photographed everyday items that are also used as ethnic slurs in America. Based on my own immigration experiences in American in the 90’s, when “melting pot” was the central strategy to assimilate immigrants, where immigrants were pushed to assimilate into the mainstream American society as much as and as quickly as possible. By conforming to the mainstream American culture, many immigrants suffer from identity loss and disconnection from their original cultures. Worse, they are criticized as whitewashed and suffer discrimination from people of their own culture. I want to use this still life series to highlight the insidiousness of discrimination and distortion of identities hiding in plain sights.