Normally when people first meet they introduce themselves, ask where they're from, and play the name game. For me, the question "what are you" is brought up more frequently than "do you have any siblings." I have unique features that make it hard to point out my exact ethnicity. I'd like to think that if I were a superhero my name would be Ethnically Ambiguous Girl-not to be confused with the Ambiguously Gay Duo of course. Even when people don't blatantly ask the question they will play a guessing game. Russia? No. Middle East? No. Spain? No. Brazil...well you get the picture. I don't have a problem with people asking me about my ethnicity, but it's the context in which I am being asked that changes the way I feel about it.
When people ask me questions about my ethnicity, I feel that it is an attempt to create distance. People are not asking me so they can see if we have similar backgrounds, they are asking because I am different from them and they want to figure out what it is. Growing up multi-racial I embrace differences. It's great to know you've got a good story about where you're from and it truly builds character. I find, however, that being labeled as 'different' has different connotations when I am in the U.S. and out of the U.S.
Now, I am not one to rant about racial injustices and I am by no means hyper-sensitive to the issue. In fact, if race no longer became an issue I wouldn't notice the change. The problem is, that in the U.S. people want to identify with those like themselves. Unfortunately, race can become one of the identifying criteria. Often, people will categorize me into whatever category that they're not in. If you're white, I'm Asian. If you're Asian, I'm white. If you're black, it doesn't matter because I couldn't even pull that one off. Sometimes it's hard here to explain that you're multi-racial. You want to say "don't put me in that box." Does everyone really have to pick a side in the racial draft?
When I'm abroad though, I feel like my ambiguity is an asset. With the current anti-American sentiment seeping across borders, its not always favorable to run around yelling "God bless America" through a megaphone. Therefore, when I go abroad and am asked the same questions, I feel exceptional. Like I don't fit the stereotypical mold of what an American should look like. I remember my Dad even boasting that when he flew Lufthansa the stewardess (not a PC term I understand but a bad tick I can't get rid of) greeted him in German, rather than English, like she had to all other passengers.
I feel that those who guess my ethnicity when I travel, though generally incorrectly, aren't placing me in such a narrow box as Americans are. When I'm abroad I could claim to be from four different continents and people would believe it. As an international traveler you can never be a local, but you can be global, as my dad puts it. With this ambiguous ethnicity I feel like I can slip through the cracks of politics, ethno-centrism, and nationalism. Sometimes it's ok to be a mutt.
While I'm not anti-American and I do not want to disown my nationality, I would like to think that challenge people's opinions of Americans. No, we're not rodeo riding, fast food eating, uncultured swine. No, we do not all look like we shop at the Mall of America and eat fried cheesecake on a stick. So while I believe my ethnicity is an asset in blending into the international melting pot, I feel it is also a tool that I can use to impact the way that people think of the "stereotypical American."
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4 comments:
I love fried cheesecake on a stick. I think the world would love us we gave them more food on sticks.
After reading your post, which happened to mirror a post of my own, I too feel that when out of the United States my “ambiguity is an asset” where as in the United States, my multiethnicity acts as a type of barrier that hinders many of my interpersonal interactions. But don’t you think that with the rise of our generation, one characterized by a mixture of races and ethnicities, your racial ambiguity will become an asset on U.S. soil? In other words, as the diversified population of our generation, which has often been referred to as “generation X,” moves into positions of power and leadership that you will soon begin to feel more at home in the U.S.?
Being multiracial in the US is a complicated thing. Although, I feel that we are very spoiled living in Southern California.
It is interesting to look at multi-ethnicity as having a sort of double-standard. In America (though we argue against it), most things seem to always come back to a homogenized white ideal culture, yet when you travel anywhere else, this "ideal" is hardly what foreigners are too keen to see from our nation.
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