Tammy Duckworth

Tammy Duckworth is a US senator from Illinois. The child of a white American father and a Thai-Chinese mother, she was previously a lieutenant colonel in the US Army and a member of the US House of Representatives. She lost both of her legs while serving in the Iraq War, where she was one of the first women to fly helicopters in combat and the first female double amputee. She was the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, the second Asian American woman to be elected to the Senate, and the first senator to give birth while in office.

Her official Senate portrait, 2017 (via)

How were biracial children in Thailand treated? 

Not well, especially at the time – biracial children were assumed to be the children of prostitutes and American servicemen. So we were not treated well.  I’m sure some folks might remember “children of the dust,” which was the name for biracial children in Vietnam.  It was a little bit better in Thailand, where I was growing up, but there was a lot of discrimination.  It was weird dichotomy between being scorned and looked down upon, but then also, because of white standards of beauty, because I have a double eyelid, that I was seen as more appealing and better-looking. In fact, biracial children were often the target of the sex trade.

- From an interview with Diane Rehm, March 2021

With her parents and brother (via)

With her parents (via)

On growing up biracial in Thailand in the ‘60s

I think it definitely shaped me. You know, in the book, I talked about my cousins calling me names and talking about how my dad smelled like cheese. If you're ever in Southeast Asia, you know, especially the older generation, they all think that all foreigners smell like cheese, and it makes them want to gag. And they would tease me. You know, you come up with whatever it is that is the vulnerability, right, in each other when you're kids, and you poke that vulnerability. And so they poked me about my dad all the time.

And, you know, I was always just trying to fit in. And I never did. I couldn't physically fit in. In the book, I talk about how I was so much bigger than my cousins that they would complain that I was vibrating the house walking around in it because there are these traditional wooden houses.

But if you look at what's happening today, you're hearing that same conversation about Asian Americans always feeling like an other even in their own country here in the United States. And for me, it really started early on. And, you know, I hope people get a sense of that.

- From an interview with All Things Considered, March 2021

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Being sworn in as a senator with her daughter, her mother, her spouse, and then-Vice President Joe Biden on January 3, 2017 (via)

I’ve always known that Asian women were targeted, but to have what little data we have clearly point out that two-thirds of those crimes are directly targeting Asian women really crystallized for me what I have always known instinctively. It bothers me a lot because my mom is very independent and she goes out and she drives and she goes shopping, and I know that she is a potential target, and I worry about her.

- From an interview with The Verge, April 2021

With her children (via)

With her children (via)