Family and Politics
Submitted by Kristine Lim
For me, I know that mentioning politics is not something that is looked upon favorably by my parents or extended family members, so I largely stay away from mentioning politics. Especially with 2020 being an election year, I had a lot of political beliefs that I did not agree with force-fed to me at the dinner table. The ideological divide in my household is extremely difficult to navigate at times. It seems like explaining yourself and your beliefs to people who disagree can be mentally exhausting.
My parents are Filipino immigrants, and Filipino culture is largely based on Catholicism and collectivism. The latter employs an emphasis on the family and doing what is best for the collective whole rather than the individual. There is also a generational gap between myself and my parents. They grew up in a different place and time, and therefore are very traditional and tend to be more conservative. Based on what I had observed, it seemed unequivocal to me that culture informs and influences one’s political beliefs.
But I knew my experience was neither universal nor was I alone in what I was experiencing. To gain more insight into politics and family, I engaged members of the Asian community at UD.
One thing I noticed was that other people were also experiencing a political disconnect due to a generational divide. For example, Dami Kang, a first-generation Korean American, notes, “I love my grandma but her political beliefs are very different from mine since I am a young Korean millennial. Trying to talk about politics is almost impossible with her because she gets so mad if I say something different than what she believes.”
It also seemed that a generational gap, combined with a lack of diversification of one’s news and information sources, also created political dissonance. Alicia Chen, a second-generation Chinese American, says, “It’s a conversation topic we typically avoid since my parents get most of their information from Chinese media. But recently we have talked about it more frequently because I started to get more into politics. My mom is definitely more receptive to what I have to say, but my father is very hard-headed about it as he believes only what he hears.”
Being mixed race—both Chinese and Caucasian—Elise LaFramboise brought in a different perspective but a similar experience. She mentions that her parents are “very liberal” so it is “easy to have political conversations with them since we share the same morals”. But with her grandma, it is not so easy. “She is pretty conservative, and we avoid having political conversations with her so as to not create conflict in the family,” Elise explains. “But I know that I want to talk to her more when I see her over Thanksgiving and Christmas break and try to educate her about politics because I don’t know how well-rounded her news viewing is. It would be nice to talk to her and educate her.”
On the other hand, it is very possible to have healthy and constructive conversations about politics with family members. Unsurprisingly, this usually happens when one shares the same political beliefs as those they are conversing with. As for Alex Arellano, a second-generation Filipino American, he comments, “In my family, we all share the same political viewpoints. Thus, there isn’t much debate, more so conversation where we all agree and build off each others’ thoughts.”
Sabrina Jaw, a first-generation Taiwanese American, is also able to have political conversations with her family pretty easily. “We share the same political views and we have the same core values,” Sabrina says. “It’s not awkward to talk about politics with my family members at all. My parents are extremely progressive, so I really don’t think there’s any sort of generational gap.”
It seems that having political conversations with family members can be quite challenging and conflict-inducing for some, but easy and constructive for others. Each family is unique in their own way, and generational differences will continue to persist, but making an effort to educate our family members and engage in these conversations is what is most important.
Follow AAPC’s Instagram!
