Dust Child

Content Warning: This section discusses racialized physical and verbal abuse, racism, rape, sexual abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, and wartime violence.

Phong is waiting with his family at the American consulate, hoping to get a visa. As the child of a Vietnamese woman and a Black American soldier who was in the country during the war years, Phong has experienced a lifetime of discrimination. He has been called a “child of the enemy” and a “child of dust” (1), among other hurtful pejoratives. Even at the consulate, he notices the way that other visa applicants eye him with suspicion. He is waiting with his wife, Bình; his 14-year-old son, TàI; and his 12-year-old daughter, Diễm. His children also experience both racist and anti-American discrimination, so he is desperately hoping to be granted a visa to leave Việt Nam.

When it is Phong’s turn to speak to a consular official, he finds out that without proof that he is the child of an American man, he is ineligible for a visa. He learns that this proof must come in the form of a DNA test and that in order to obtain one, he must first find his father. Phong tries to explain that he does not know his father’s identity and cannot find him without traveling to the United States, but the official is unsympathetic.