What Makes a ‘Real’ American?

Moving beyond the assumption that all Asian Americans are immigrants

May-lee Chai
ZORA
Published in
5 min readSep 23, 2020

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Closeup of an Asian woman’s face against a filtered American flag background.
Photo illustration; Image source: Alao Yokogi/Daniel Kaesler /EyeEm/Getty Images

When asked at one of his press events if he’d heard the assertion that Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was not eligible to serve, President Donald Trump replied with this: “But that’s a very serious, you’re saying that, they’re saying that she doesn’t qualify because she wasn’t…

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May-lee Chai
ZORA
Writer for

Author of Useful Phrases for Immigrants: Stories, winner of the American Book Award. Bylines in Kenyon Review Online, Paris Review Online, Seventeen +