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MULTI-CULTURAL, MULTI-ETHNIC, MULTI-RACIAL & IDENTITY
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All TCKs are multi-cultural, lots of TCKs are multi-ethnic and a growing number are multi-racial. For all TCKs, identity is an issue we grapple with, often daily. The layers that form identity become evermore complex as factors are added in. It is one thing to be from a single ethnic or cultural group and raised in one or more additional cultures, and quite another to hold multiple identities in one’s very body as well as bouncing around though differing cultures.
I was reminded of this yesterday when reading a great article in my local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle. The article is on the growing group of Americans who refuse to choose a single racial identity when they are, in fact, multi-racial. The springboard for the article is presidential candidate Barack Obama: Obama raises profile of mixed-race Americans. http://tinyurl.com/5cr6pv
The San Franciso Bay Area is a focal point for racial/ethnic/cultural mixing. Here, no combination of couple is noteworthy: all genders, all races, all ethnicities and all cultures are on parade, and in any and all combinations. So is it any wonder that people of all backgrounds are now refusing to be pigeon-holed by superficial racial characteristics? Why should people have to choose one part of their heritage over another?
As TCKs, we have an umbrella identity which we are just beginning to explore as a community. It is a big identity that holds many different kinds of cross-cultural experiences. I think we are a growing prototype of the new identity: world citizen. We are expanded beyond national boundaries, many across ethnic boundaries and a rapidly growing number across racial boundaries. As these boundaries blur and disolve, we are free to explore our commonalities and focus on our mutual humanity. We are free to see our differences through eyes that are curious and understanding rather than suspicious and condeming, and we are free to appreciate the richness of our blended customs, food cultures, music, and so much more, that make up the new supranational identity.
As world citizens, we are free to be those things that suit our personalities, to love those things that touch our hearts and to have brothers and sisters everywhere who are “our kind” regardless of what current societial organization may try to tell us.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
@ MsM
I understand, but at the same time, some are very shallow comments.. Just saying. I mean, there *is* something wrong, but it’s one of those things that you just have to let go unless you’re gonna start something to change that, yeah?
@ Seeker
Thanks, I try to sound more intelligent than I am HAHAHA
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July 24th, 2008 at 10:36 am
@ KRISTINE
Than maybe you have never had to deal with racism on a daily level that impeded on your personal safety. Australian people and there idea that there country is a “utopia” of freedom & tolerance is some of the most bogus ish I ever heard. And when you attempt to share your experience to foster understabding they go in denial of it and on the attack with you. You may have not been followed home. Or harrassed. Threatened with rape or murder. Or had to quit your job because you boss doesn’t take racial harrassment against YOU because of you Ethnicity/color seriously. I have experienced all of the above.
We all have different experiences. And mine in Australia and with Australians has terrible. And anytime I meet an Australian who seeks an “ally” in me to b.i.t.c.h. about the US which has been relatively good to me (though challenging like all places are) and I don’t co-sign it wants to start with me. Damn, in Canada I had a group of Australian guys at my job circle and harass me about the fact I sounded “british”? “You sound like an effin’ pom - act Australian!”. Being bullied in a foreign country because I don’t sound like they want me to be! I heard the same thing when I re-visited the place from the Customs official! What a way to re-enter your “home country!”
It’s culture is one of bullying and of the “tall poppy” syndrome. I will always speak out about and in turn I will always deal with the backlash of this backwards nation who pretends it is the best in the world.
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July 24th, 2008 at 10:40 am
@ YAMOU
“Dreamed of having mixed children”? I am suspicious of that comment already…do you look at people like potential sperm receptacles of human beings who may share an attraction with you?
That comment made my skin crawl…it also sounds like a potential man of another race is fetishized not viewed on his own human merits.
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July 24th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
@MsM
Actually, i’ve had to deal with some racism myself. I quit my job recently, because some people at my job believed that only white people should be working there, not brown people. I tried to take a stand by speaking to people working above us but nothing happened. The white people complained about every single thing I did, and attempted getting me fired. I have been verbally harassed in school because i am asian. My friends and i have been called ‘f’n asians’ before, and mocked and everything. I’ve been made fun of because of my ‘asian-ness’. Am I bitter towards Canadians and their bogus non-racism facade? Perhaps, a little. But I will never say all of them are like this. I will not speak about this unless I had an idea of what it’s like, thank you very much.
I know it’s hard, dealing with it, but sometimes, anger is not the way to go.
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July 24th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
To all the above,
We are a community–we are made of people of different races and different backgrounds. No matter what has happened, please respect that is possible for another person to have gone through something similar, if not the same.
One of the cardinal rules of this forum is that we do not judge, we do not incite negativity to further our own issues. We communicate, we comfort, we empathise, we try to help each other move on. Please do not discount someone, no matter what your stance or background.
If we create an “us vs. them” atmosphere within our own community, then we lose everything we’ve stood for. We are tolerate, we are cooperative, we are kind.
Listen to each other, please. We’re all together in this.
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July 24th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
High 5 cait. Good way to put it.
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July 25th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
@ KAITLIN
Imagine everytime you encounter someone from your passport country you have to deal with abuse. Did you not read about my experience living abroad and still encountering antagonism? And again ma’am, where did I make a declaration that every individual raised in Australia is racist? I did not. But Australia IS a racist country. Hence I will say it again “Australia is a racist place of intolerance & delusions of grandeur about itself”. So, when people attempt to proclaim it is one way and I disagree and they get verbally violent e.g. “She must be ugly/a w.h.o.r.e. seeing as she’s Ethnic” (titter, titter) I am suppossed to reply how exactly? Funny enough, I never insult people, I keep to the facts and observations and it makes folks even more violent. but than, it oesn’t suprise me - most nation’s with a colonialist past are in bad shape psychically. What you plant is what you reap…
@ CAITLIN
Firstly, there is nothing wrong with people challenging one another and each others ideas. Debate defines strengths and refines weaknesses and I am always up for that challenge. Secondly, where did Kristine and I insult each other with racial or degrading words? We did not. So the point of you posting was…what?
And no - we are not one and the same. We are diverse people with VERY different world views despite some shared experiences. Some of the TCK’s on here come from very privilaged backgrounds and grew up in insular “international” bubbles. Once they are turned out to the “world community” they find it hard to adjust. There are other TCK/CCK’s who straddled things daily - who during the day at school/work dealt with the “real world” and than came home to another “country” in our homes. Some of us may even be refugees - displaced by will of others. We have shared experiences of feeling displaced. However, many times these forums stay on the surface issues - they rarely delve deeper that the symptoms of the core issue. Which is why I find forums like this refreshing, not threatening.
That is why I loved the forum Dan created. See how differently people REALLY view life? We spoke about CORE FEELINGS on race, culture and perceptions. I loved seeing people comment on another’s behalf to have the other person disagree. I welcome SEEKER critiqing my view. Why? It’s a MIRROR. Can anyone else stand there own reflection?
This is a great site. But many of us would not be friends in real life - I can tell this from some of the comments. Some of us go far left - other’s go far right. Some people on here are VERY conservative with there religious/political views. Some are quite radical. It’s an interesting blend. But put the feelings of displacement aside, not all of us are as “tolerant” as we think. Bring politics, social issues and race in the mix and you see the TRUE foundations people lean on. And that is the type of friendships I trust - knowing someone from the core out.
I guarantee that is all us were to l
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July 25th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
This thread needs more pictures.
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July 26th, 2008 at 2:17 am
lol @ the squirrel pic.
I’ll bet that’s what it looks like when I’m taking my stand against males who are 6ft+.
They see a squirrel ranting at them…and they think: What the….!!!?
In fact when I took this silly ‘animal test’ I came out as either a squirrel or a kitten - you see there was one question where the answer would have gone both ways and that would have put me in the squirrel slot or kitten slot!
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July 26th, 2008 at 8:44 am
@ BRICE
I co-sign. And I offer another thread of thought - let’s not be scared to challenge other folks ideas. Or do TCK’s have to become “mono” even within “our own” TCK/CCK communities?
Don’t be scared folks…MsM is not gonna fly first-class and do a drive-by on your ayss just because I don’t agree with your stances or you critique mine, lol…I may be passionate but it’s not that serious. You would have to do something really severe to me, like m.o.l.e.s.t. my child or put my family at danger to get me to have a grudge against you and/or issue war…
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