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Esther Lee
“I really didn’t understand what it meant to be undocumented until I was in the ninth grade. I was at the SATs, and there was this one column that told me to fill out my Social Security Number. And I couldn’t fill it out because I didn’t have one at the time. And I raised my hand, went to the bathroom, and I started crying. Because it was at that moment that I realized my life would be significantly more difficult than it would be for anybody else who was taking these tests to get into college.”
“They didn’t provide financial aid for undocumented immigrants at the time. I was lucky to have family to pay for some of my tuition, but I also had to work really hard to pay for the rest. I’ve known for a very long time that I would have to work really, really hard to be on the same playing field as everyone else.”
“It was in 2011, when I saw Jose Antonio Vargas came out, that I was very inspired to tell my own story. Because here was this Filipino with a Latino name who came out, a very successful journalist – he’s won Pulitzers. I thought it was so brave of him to come out, and I didn’t want him to be alone in telling his own story. He got so much backlash when he came out as undocumented. People said that he fooled this nation.”
“I had a conversation with my family before I applied to DACA, because there’s a lot of information that’s beyond yourself that you have to disclose. They all said, ‘Don’t apply for it. We don’t know how long President Obama is going to make this a viable option for you. What if he’s just using this to gather information on you?’ But my response was, ‘Well, what other choice do I have?’ Journalism has always been something I’ve wanted to do. It was a very hard conversation, but I’m so glad that I did, because DACA has been so instrumental in helping me launch my career.”
“In 2007, I was stopped on my way to Chicago. A passenger border protection agent came on board to check all of us and asked, ‘Are you a U.S. citizen?’ And of course, I answered truthfully. I said, ‘No, I am not.’ He said, ‘I need to see your identification.’ He took my passport in one hand and weighed it against my NYU ID in the other hand, and he did this weighing motion. And he gave them back to me and said, ‘Ms. Lee. Today is your lucky day. I’m not going to do anything with you.’ And I think it’s really on the basis of my skin tone, on the basis of my non-accent. And had I been Latino, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“I am of the belief that the Minority Myth is harmful, because if we were to say that all Asians are successful, that leaves out a lot of people in the middle or in low income bracket, who are working very hard, but don’t necessarily have the same resources that people who are making more money have… So when we have the Model Minority Myth going for us, saying that we’re perfect and we all speak English and we don’t need help, I think it really hurts those who do need the resources.”
“In many ways, I feel like because of the privilege that I have, I think it is crucial to use my privilege to give voice to the voiceless. And that’s partially why I became a journalist.”
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