My mother and I share a belief that experience not only build character but open up numerous doors. Thus, growing up, I have been in a very wide variety of societies- sports communities, art institutes and studios, academic conferences, human rights NGOs, school, academies, and much more- enough to realize some people will dislike me, or view me as some inferior Asian girl no matter what I do. I discovered a few people will like me, or even try to genuinely understand me; and the rest won't care. Since then, I tried to free myself from social expectations and stereotypes, norms and peer pressure. I kept a quite low threshold.
Unfortunately, the society I grew up in was quite the opposite. Like Rick Barry was appalled by the players' reluctance to underhand throws, I was dumbstruck at the students' disapproval of 'daring to question the teacher'. Even the students who were fully aware that they were being mistreated, was afraid to step out to be the 'naughty' one. The others turned a blind eye on the injustice, and instead prepared to lash out at anyone who spoke out.
Malcolm Gladwell made fabulous observations about social threshold in "The Big Man Can't Shoot", but he was wrong in at least one of his points; you need more than just a few 'radicals' to change. Rick Barry, despite his success as a basketball player, was not enough. I also, despite some success in bettering the lives of the students, was not enough.
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