Eddie Huang comes forward with his own sexual abuse story
The current flood of people releasing statements about their sexual harassers and abusers is both a good and a bad thing: It’s horrible that any of these incidents should happen to anyone, but at least now the truth is coming to the surface and the healing can begin (and at least some of the predators can hopefully get prosecuted). Now chef and Fresh Off The Boat author Eddie Huang has posted his own essay on The Cut, called “Why I Denied My Sexual Assault for 20 Years,” relaying a church ski trip he went on when he was 14 that took a turn for the sinister.
In the hard-to-read but expertly written essay, Huang describes how he and his friend were just looking forward to hitting the slopes, mixing peach schnapps with hot chocolate, and meeting up with some girls, when one of the trip chaperones entered their hotel room and asked to take a shower. Huang writes:
I get knots in my stomach and blood rushes to my brain when I begin to write this. I think it’s anger, but I’m not sure. More than anything, I just feel powerless to the memory. Him taking his time with the shower, steaming up the room, then coming out with his dick hanging out.
The chaperone then proceeded to masturbate in front of the boys while reading the Bible out loud. Thankfully, he left after about 15 minutes, but the damage to Huang’s psyche had been done. Huang and his friend did not speak up, because: