Love, identity, representation: Patrick Suzuki visits CSU after Netflix spotlight

Colorado State University alumnus Patrick Suzuki took center stage on this fall’s season 9 of Netflix’s “Love is Blind” when he opened up to his soon-to-be fiancee about his experience as an Asian American, shining a rare spotlight on Asian identity within predominantly white spaces.

Hailing from Grand Junction, Colorado, Suzuki’s family moved to the United States during the Cambodian genocide. His father worked as a peach farmer to support the transition. Suzuki grew up as one of the only Asian-American kids in his community and regularly experienced bullying throughout his upbringing. In the show, Suzuki spoke at length about how that isolation shaped his confidence and identity.

“I grew up as one of the only Asian kids in class, even in Thornton or Pueblo West where I went to high school,” Suzuki said. “As a kid, you know, I’m just getting bullied extremely hard. I’m going, like, one versus 30, and I’m the only Asian kid in class.”

Years later, Suzuki’s tumultuous “Love is Blind” relationship put him in the limelight, giving him a platform he hopes to use to share his experience as a racial minority and promote a message of love, acceptance and diversity.

“I really hope that it’s super impactful for the state — and this county as a matter of fact — and I hope the CSU Ram students and everyone can support me in this mission,” Suzuki said. “I’m going to keep pushing the message about diversity, inclusion and the importance of emotional connection and why it’s so important to accept people of all different ethnicities.”
“I want to represent diversity, inclusion and equality, and I definitely want to represent love and marriage and how important it is for our society to keep looking for something way more valuable than just a fling here and there. … And what I really want to get at is that we need to really find our identity again, which is cultural and ethnic diversity. That’s what makes America so strong.” -Patrick Suzuki, “Love is Blind” cast member and CSU alum
Suzuki visited CSU Nov. 8 to walk down memory lane with CSU President Amy Parsons and join the Rams Live Pregame Show to chat about his experiences on “Love is Blind.” The moment was especially meaningful, Suzuki said, because CSU helped him build the skills needed for the show.

“I think (CSU) gave me so many options, so many opportunities,” Suzuki said. “I still work in construction management to this day. It’s an awesome career path. … I mean, my experience being in construction management led to my communication skills in the pods.”

“The pods” are individual rooms in the show separated by an illumined wall that contestants speak through. After 10 days of speed dating, couples would get engaged — “sight unseen” — to test the theory that love is blind. Suzuki’s fiancee, Kacie McIntosh, ultimately ended up calling off the engagement after the face reveal.

Everyone on the season left single, signaling to many that maybe love is not blind. But for Suzuki, the show did more than draw negative conclusions about love; it helped him embrace his identity further.

“I was confident when I got there, but even afterwards, it made me understand even more that you have to just love yourself and not look for why you may be different, and more look at what you have to offer and what you have to bring to the table,” Suzuki said. “I just learned a lot about how love really transpires and how healing wounds and healing insecurities is, like, a massive step to finding a loving relationship.”

Although Suzuki said he takes immense pride in his Asian American identity, he said the final edit of “Love is Blind” did little to show how his background actually gave him the confidence to join the show in the first place. To some viewers, he instead appeared ashamed of that identity, especially when he attributed his past struggles in dating to the internalized prejudice that may have led women to disregard him based on his appearance alone.

“Watching it back was like, oh man, I wish they got to show the confidence as well as show how I’ve grown through my childhood, up to the moment where I get into the pods where I had enough confidence to go on national television and talk about such a deeply rooted topic with confidence,” Suzuki said. “Watching back on it, it was weird. But at the same time, I am looking at (it) from a very positive lens that at least the conversation was sparked.”

Suzuki said he hopes his presence on the show provided meaningful representation to fellow racial minorities who may feel overlooked in the dating world.

“There could be a heavily deep-rooted belief system where girls don’t necessarily think of Asian men as attractive men right off the bat, and they kind of swipe in the wrong direction,” Suzuki said. “A lot of this has to do with the way that our culture is and being a minority in the U.S.. Our culture has not had a lot of Asian male stars when we were growing up in mainstream media.”

Despite his uniquely difficult experience on the show, Suzuki said he hopes to continue championing love and marriage while advocating for a society strengthened by diversity and acceptance.

“I want to represent diversity, inclusion and equality, and I definitely want to represent love and marriage and how important it is for our society to keep looking for something way more valuable than just a fling here and there,” Suzuki said. “And what I really want to get at is that we need to really find our identity again, which is cultural and ethnic diversity. That’s what makes America so strong.”

Reach Chloe Waskey at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.