Growing up in the Bronx, I didn't understand how racism towards blacks could still be around because the majority of my classmates were black. I, being neither Latino, white, nor black, was the minority. I've been called "chink", and kids pulled at their eyes while I walked by. But for the most part, those were small incidents that didn't stop me from having friends of every ethnicity and gender.
I don't know how I would be any different if I grew up in the midwest, west coast, or the Philippines. I've been told that it's hard to pinpoint where I am from if you didn't know me. Sometimes this worries me because I see it as being "generic", but other times it's good to be able to blend in. I make friends easily and can adapt to things quickly. I like to imagine that if I didn't look like I do, I would have been a great girl version of Jason Bourne (Bourne Identity), blending in with different cultures, speaking dozens of different languages, spying on what every country needs spying on. Or maybe I just thought Matt Damon was cute?
Now I wanted this post to be have enlightening insight into life as a minority, living amongst minorities, and I end with talking about Matt Damon. What I wanted to add is that, in my own experience, I've found that growing up with other ethnicities, as opposed to growing up in a mono-culture with the same faces looking back at you, interesting but not satisfying because I never got to see the day-to-day of other peoples, or my own. Even my own "culture" has been watered down since I grew up in America. I've been, for a lack of a better term, "whitewashed". My culture has little to do with where I was born, but much to do with where I was raised and the experiences that I have had. I don't know if it's good or bad.
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