Published Wednesday, April 4, 2001
Understanding the importance of differences
BY ANGELIQUE SOENARIE
ASNE Reporter
 |
| ANGELIQUE SOENARIE |
AGE:
25
HOMETOWN: Los Angeles
COLLEGE: Wayne State University
YEAR: Junior
|
My family is the definition of diversity.
I am Indonesian and Filipino. I have two aunties who are African-American, one uncle who is Jewish, an aunt who is German, another aunt who is Italian. My great-grandfather was Filipino, my great-grandmother was Hawaiian. When my family looks at each other we just see a family. Race issues were not discussed at family gatherings.
But the multicultural, multiracial makeup of my family makes me stand out among my friends and their “regular” families. I don’t fit their definition of the usual Asian-American.
And I am aware that outside of our family realm, I’m not always accepted.
Still, my family taught me to embrace others with understanding, so I see journalism as a way to describe people like me. My background contributes to my ability to communicate without reservation.
That was put to the test in January when the Detroit Free Press called me to free-lance a story. My assignment: cover the fatal stabbing of a Hmong woman by a 22-year-old Hmong man. The man killed her after she performed an exorcism and came to collect money for her services, police said.
When I arrived at the crime scene, the suspect’s family was apprehensive and refused to speak to me. The suspect’s father spoke broken English. I did not speak their native language. But the message was clear: they didn’t want to talk, afraid it would be called a “racial” crime.
I spent the next 20 minutes speaking calmly to the anxious father, repeating over and over that I simply wanted to hear their story. Eventually, I was invited inside.
As I followed the father into the house, I paused. I felt a cold tingle go down my back when I saw the blood-stained carpet. I was nervous, but I managed to walk over the stain.
As I sat down on the sofa, I saw the terror in the faces of this man’s family. I listened to the father slowly describe why his son killed the woman. His son, the father said, was mentally ill and the family thought that a ritual exorcism would cure him, rid him of his evil spirits.
The mother began talking in her native language and demonstrated what the woman did to her son. The woman did not ask for money for the exorcism, the father said, so they thought she was doing them a favor.
A few months later, the family said, the woman asked them for $100. They gave it to her, but the son said he still heard spirits. Soon, the woman returned and demanded an additional $1,000, the father said. He told the woman to flee, but it was too late; the son killed her and police charged him with murder.
The family never thought the situation would end in someone’s death. They were just using an old spiritual custom they thought would heal their son, they said.
As I drove back to the newsroom, I realized how my upbringing helped me enter a world of unfamiliar surroundings and come back with information to share with readers. That day I was driven to understand why an exorcism led to the death of a woman, and my multiracial makeup got me those answers. My editors thought the story was bizarre, but I knew it was simply these people’s way of life. And did the editors think all Asian-Americans were like this? I wondered.
The media fail people of color when they don’t get the full story because they don’t want to stray away from familiar people or places. But Asian-Americans like myself share a deep frustration that we are grouped as the same by the very media trying to respect diversity. We are not the same.
What’s important to me is to be fair, to interview and write about people with different beliefs that can help fill in the gap of ignorance. It should be important to every reporter.
