THE THEEAGLE EAGLEEYE EYE George Washington School George Washington HighHigh School December __, 2015
December 9th, 2015
Table of Contents 2. Letter From the Editors 3. Opinion: Race isn’t Real 4. Infograph 5. “What Does It Mean to Be American?” 6. Malia Jenkins’ Opinion on Gender Neutrality 8. Why do Students Change their Names? 13. Sufiyan Patel 15 Laxmi Lama 17. Deavon Smith 19. Fatima Alhakim 21. Elaine Mei 23. Maximiliano Martinez 25. Yu’nasia Ledbetter 27. Iris Siguenza 28. Multiracial Students 30. Andre Higginbotham 31. Sergio Costantini 32. Ed Marquez
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hen deciding what we wanted our overall theme for the magazine to be, we knew we wanted something that would celebrate the diversity at Washington. We wanted to make sure students from a variety of backgrounds would have the opportunity to share their stories. We all have stories to tell, and through the profiles, opinion stories, and investigative reports we hope that we answered the question, “How has being you influenced the person that you are today?� We are thrilled that students and teachers with different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and life experiences felt comfortable and safe enough to share their stories with us. Although we did our best to include as many different people as possible, we realize that some may not be represented in this magazine. If you are one of those people, we apologize. We hope that we can share your story in our next issue. We hope you enjoy reading this magazine. Thank you! -Jhoselene Alvarado, Marie Baker & Katie Whitmire
Magazine Editors-in-Chief: Jhoselene Alvarado, Marie Baker, Katie Whitmire Newspaper Editors-in-Chief: Nicole Bergelson, Carolyn Hanson Lee, Joyce Ma Website Editors-in-Chief: Annie Lei, Jennifer Yip Head Photographer: Mandy Yu Assistant Photographers: Kevin Truong, Melody Yan Graphic Designer: Allison Wu Staff Writers: Anna Bernick, Maximillian Bormann, Dulce Fuentes-Levya, Joel Ho, Kevin Li, Andrew Liu, Jesse Matthews, Bitota Mpolo, Chris Ramos, Samantha Sacks, Hanaki Sato, David Scolari, Deavon Smith, Tobias Sunshine, Benjamin Toledo, Winnie Zhang, Carmen Zhen, Jerrick Zhu Teacher Advisor: David Cary
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Opinion: Race Isn’t Real BY DAVID SCOLARI
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aving been in Teresa Camajani’s history class my junior year, I heard her say a lot of shocking things. But perhaps the most shocking of all was when she told the class that race is not real. After she said this, looks of confusion filled the room. We all thought to ourselves: How could the base criteria for segregating, oppressing, and persecuting countless numbers of people over several hundreds of years not be real? Has society been structuring itself completely wrong all these years? The answer, it turns out, is yes. I recently had a conversation with Camajani in which she helped me understand why race is not a real thing, but rather, something constructed by society. One problem Camajani expressed to me about race is the definition of race itself. “Race means some really bizarre and inconsistent things,” she explained. While some people define race as skin color, others define race as ethnic background. The term race can be extremely ambiguous, but the way it is most commonly used in society is as a criteria for separating people into cultural groups based on skin color. This definition of race implies some sort of cause and effect relationship between the color of someone’s skin and the way they think and act; however as Camajani explained to me, skin color and culture are not related in this way. Differences are a part of human nature and two of the most prominent human differences are skin color and culture. Recognizing and celebrating these differences is common amongst people all over the world. People are often extremely attached to their cultural identity and how it makes them unique, and as much as people in society try to ignore skin color, it is impossible to not notice how different the color of two people’s skin might be. Recognizing these differences in skin color and culture does not cause conflicts. Problems arise, however, when people start linking skin color to cultural identity as if one somehow affects the other. People inherit their skin color genetically from their biological parents. Although the process by which a person gets his or her skin color is simple, the means by which a person’s culture is developed is a little more complicated. A person’s culture is what determines the way he or she thinks and acts.
Also included in a person’s culture are any customs or belief systems he or she may follow. These things are mainly influenced by the environment a person grows up in. Most of the time, people are raised by their biological family, so their skin color and their culture come from the same place and appear to be correlated. However, correlation does not equal causation. The color of a person’s skin in no way determines how he or she thinks or acts. An example where this is evident is in Camajani’s children. “I have [one biological child and] five adopted children [of different skin colors],” Camajani said. Her children were all raised in the same environment and therefore share cultural aspects. “They all talk in the same way, and eat in the same way,” Camajani continued. The different skin colors of her children do not cause them to act think or act differently. “Culture comes from the environment a person grows up in,” she explains. Camajani gave a scenario that sums up this whole phenomenon. It involved taking a group of people of all different cultures and ripping the skin off of each one so that you couldn’t tell their biological background by looking on them. Then, if you tried to put the skin back on again, you would have an extremely difficult time trying to figure out which person belonged to which skin. When you look under each person’s skin, it is impossible to differentiate between a person of one ethnic background and a person of another. “I know that sounds a little ‘kumbayah-ish’,” says Camajani, “But I don’t mean it in that way, I mean it absolutely biologically, that underneath the skin, it’s all the same tissue.” It should be noted that, though race is not a real thing in humanity, racism is. When people use the word “race” to say that certain groups inherently think and act differently from one another, inevitably, the notion that certain groups think and act better than others arises as well. This idea of racism is responsible for many of the injustices that we see in our world today. So though people of the same skin color may not necessarily share any cultural traits, they sometimes need to unite in order to combat the injustices caused by racism and the idea of race in general.
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87%
Of students feel comfortable at GWHS
5%
15%
No
85% Yes
8%
Of students do not feel comfortable at GWHS
Of students declined to answer
Do You Feel American?
! " %
%
%
%
%
% % %
%
%
Demographics
of GWHS
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“What Does It Mean to Be American?” *The quotes featured on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the Journalism staff
Here is what Washington students had to say: “To accomplish your dream.” Asian, Male, Grade 12
“To be accepting of others.” Asian, Male, Grade 12
“To love your country.” African American, Male, Grade 12
“To be living in America as a citizen.” Asian, Female, Grade 9
“Freedom to do whatever you please.” Hispanic, Male, Grade 12 “You’re patriotic and able to have more freedom than people in other countries.” Asian, Male, Grade12
“Love the United States and speak English well.” Chinese, Male, Grade 11 “White.” Hispanic, Male, Grade 12 “White, blue-eyed.” Asian, Male, Grade 12 “To be tall and be white.” Asian, Female, Grade 9 “To have a U.S. passport.” Chinese, Male, Grade 11
“College debt.” White, Female, Grade 11 “Opportunity.” Latino, Male, Grade 10 “Wealthy.” Latino, Male, Grade 9 “To be American means to know about America only; lack of knowledge about the outside world” Asian, Female, Grade 11
“It means to have rights, to feel free, to have a voice and to be heard.” White/African American, Female, Grade 10 “Guns.” Irish American, Male, Grade 10 “You’re born in America and have lived in America since a young age.” Asian, Female, Grade 11 “It means to be proud of our history.” Chinese, Female, Grade 9
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Malia Jenkins
Their Opinion on Gender Neutrality
What does it mean to be gender-neutral? It varies from person to person so this is all just my personal opinion first off… For me personally, I would say [it’s being] neither male nor female and not really a mix of the two… I personally identify as agender which is no gender at all. If you’re looking at gender like a color wheel or color spectrum and male is blue and female is pink, I would say that [to be gender-neutral] is white. It’s this sort of blank feeling of nothing really there or a grey feeling of nothing, like no distinguishable feeling.
When did you figure out that you were gender-neutral?
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It was last year, during freshman year… someone stereotyped me as a girl and they were like “You’re a girl so you should like glittery things,” because there was this glittery ruler and I was like, “Well no because that’s very misogynistic for you to say and I don’t know if I’m comfortable being called a girl like that,” so that led me to do some research and I figured things out on my own. I kind of knew about nonbinary identities, I just didn’t really feel anything that resonated within me when I did know about [them], but I sort of realized when I was being called a girl in some of my classes I [wondered] if I really felt comfortable with this identity; why am I not comfortable and that kind of led me to question my identity… I did more research and looked at terms that I thought would fit me… It was kind of stressful in [the beginning] but then it kind of evened out and I felt more secure… It was a lot of Internet research. The Internet is a pretty good resource; a lot of people diss it but I think it’s pretty good. For me at least, it helped.
When you figured out your gender did you have a “eureka” moment? Yeah, there’s gender dysphoria and gender euphoria. Gender dysphoria is when you feel like “No this isn’t my gender, that’s wrong, I feel anxiety and stress over it”, but gender euphoria is this feeling of peace and victory and that’s sort of what I felt when I researched it because... I looked through demigender which is still partially gender and partially not and I looked at demigirl and I was like, “that’s not me” and I looked at grey gender which is kind of agender and kind of not… It was more sort of this process of “Am I comfortable with this am I not?”... My gender euphoria feeling was more of a process of time instead of just instant. I wish I had an instant recognition but [everyone’s] story goes differently.
What was it like coming out as gender-neutral? I’m still coming out to this day; it’s a very gradual process. I didn’t do it all at once; I took little baby steps and I’m still taking those baby steps. Coming out as transgender is very similar to coming out as gay, but [it’s] kind of harder because people have to fix their pronouns and how they refer to you. So I use gender-neutral pronouns like ‘they,’ ‘them’ and ‘ze,’ ‘zir’ and some people have a hard time using [them]. They also argue, “You can’t use they/them because it’s plural,” but there is a singular they… Also trans is sort of “lesser” than gay and lesbian [because] people know what gay and lesbian [are] but they might not know what trans is… So it was kind of hard to get people to understand where I was coming from and it still is really hard to get them to respect my pronouns. Even my best friends. They don’t mean it in a hurtful way like, “Oh, I am not going to use your pronouns”; [but] they just forget because forgetting is human… For [comparison] to a gay or lesbian experience it may have been a tiny bit harder but I wouldn’t say, “My experience was harder than yours”... Everyone took it well. My parents took it very well because they are quite liberal and I’m very thankful for that…
When and why did you start using the bathroom in the Beacon Center as your locker room? At the beginning of the school year, late August, I moved to... the Beacon restroom as a locker room for PE because using the girls’ locker room was really uncomfortable for me. I felt sort of like it wasn’t fair to girls to share their spaces with a non-girl, and that it wasn’t fair to me, either, to be presumed as a girl when I used those facilities. It made my PE experience hard to deal with because I’d get dysphoria from using the girl’s locker room, so [the gym] teachers and I worked out a gender-neutral space where I could dress. It’s helped me a lot so far and I no longer feel out of place when dressing!
How do you feel about the new gender-neutral bathrooms that are being built at school? I was more relieved than anything else. It’s nice to feel safer and be recognized at school. Some people think it’s not that much of a big deal, but I feel that it’s a big step forward in recognizing marginalized identities. It’s hard to empathize with the need for spaces that are neither male nor female unless you’re trans yourself, but I can say that it does make a big statement on how Washington views and works with people who don’t fit the gender binary.
What advice do you have for people who are questioning their gender or afraid to come out? I wish I could just give them a big hug and say, “It’ll be fine”... I know a lot of people say, “Oh, it will be fine don’t worry about it,” but you can’t help but to worry about it. I would say do as much research as you can on the topic. Make sure you’re comfortable, first and foremost. If anyone makes you feel insecure or unsafe or says, “I don’t like you now that you’re identifying as this gender,” cut them out of your life. You don’t need them. Also, just stay true to yourself. Don’t think that your gender makes you any less of a human being or makes you different from others--you’re just like other cisgender people and it’s completely normal to question your gender…
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Why Do Students Change Their Names? BY JOYCE MA
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iving in such a diverse community, there are always people who are from different cultures and, thus, may have names in different languages. One’s name can mean a lot--it is the name that you were given by your parents and it is the name that identifies you. However, as a result of the common mispronunciations, many have resolved to changing their name of a foreign language to an English name.
I thought it would be easier for people to pronounce. A lot of people struggled and looked confused when I introduced myself. I didn’t come up with Carmen, my brother actually gave me that name when I was in second grade. Then slowly it just became apart of me and it stuck with me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Chinese name. But nowadays I just feel like people make fun of me for I didn’t want to stand out. it.
I changed it because it’s easier for other people to remember my name.
I feel like when you use your Chinese name, only Chinese people will be friends with you. But when you have an English name, more people will be friends with you. And by using my English name, it allows me to better relate to others. I changed my name because I have a [unisex] Chinese name. My kindergarten teacher advised my mom to give me a more girly name so that’s how I got ‘Anna’. [It] sounds girly enough.
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Profiles
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SUFIYAN PATEL BY DAVID SCOLARI
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an Francisco has no shortage of amazing Indian food. From curries to naan and everything in between, Indian food is a S.F. favorite. Just know, the next time you dig into that yummy Chicken Tikka Masala, Washington’s very own Sufiyan Patel may have had a hand in making it. Patel, a senior, works at Mela Tandoori Kitchen, an Indian restaurant owned by his cousins. It is located near San Francisco’s Civic Center. While working as a server or host in a restaurant may not be an uncommon job for a high schooler, not many high schoolers can call themselves a chef--but that’s exactly what Patel is. Furthermore, Patel’s job is made even more unique by the way it connects him to his Indian background and the way it relates to his aspirations for the future. Despite Patel’s rich Indian heritage, he’s a “pretty normal” American high schooler on the surface. “My ethnicity does not make me feel different from the kids at Wash because I grew up in this country and I have experienced a lot of things from other cultures,” says Patel. “I also participate in activities that enable me to talk to a lot of different types of people.” Patel has played football and baseball at Washington and is also a member of the school’s Frisbee Club. Although Patel grew up in America, he also feels at home when he travels to India. “It took me a while to fit in with the culture because it’s a whole different world over there,” says Patel, referring to how India’s food, culture, and general style of living differ from life in America. “But after a few days, I felt very comfortable,” Patel continues. “I do feel like I fit into the culture because at the end of the day, it is [like] my hometown.” Patel’s ability to feel at home on two opposite sides of the globe is largely thanks to his job. Cooking in his family’s restaurant links him to his ethnic background in a way that most people do not experience. “Cooking makes me feel like I am back home in India because of all the cultural accessories we have in the restaurant,” explains Patel. “When I go to work I feel very excited because I am learning about my culture and get to experience authentic Indian cuisine.” Cooking also keeps him connected to his family. “Our recipes were passed down from my cousins’ parents and
through the generations before that,” says Patel. Growing up around his family’s restaurant has fostered the development of Patel’s passion for cooking. “When I first started working at my cousins’ restaurant, I was maybe about eight years old,” Patel says. “At first I started learning about the basics, like dish washing and cutting and chopping, this and that, but as I got older, I started learning about cooking and how long it takes to cook food and which ingredients go into which dishes.” Patel is now a full-fledged chef and able to fill any need in Mela’s kitchen. Maintaining athletics and academics is no easy task for anyone, but on top of that, Patel works both days on weekends and sometimes even a weekday when needed, amounting to about 20 hours a week. Furthermore, cooking in a restaurant is stressful and sometimes dangerous work. On a few occasions, Patel has even come to school with burns and cuts he received in the kitchen. Cooking also requires a lot of skill. Putting together a restaurant quality meal for a small group of people would be a grand accomplishment for most people Patel’s age, but Patel does it for hundreds of people on the nights he works. Chef work is usually saved for seasoned professionals, but Patel is able to do it as a high school student. With such a full schedule, Patel can get fatigued from time to time, but he rarely shows it; everything Patel does is done with a smile on his face. Having been a big part of his life growing up, cooking is something Patel wants to pursue professionally. His dream is to someday own an Indian restaurant with his brothers. “My plan, obviously, is to go to college and get a degree in business,” explains Patel. ”Hopefully once I’m done with college [my brothers and I] can sit down and start talking about how we want [to start our restaurant] and where we want to do it.” The fact that Patel’s high school job has relevance to his professional aspirations is another thing that makes his career choice so interesting. Most high school jobs are simply avenues for teens to make a little extra cash and gain some experience in the workplace, but Patel’s job is a significant part of who he is and who he plans to be in the future.
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LAXMI LAMA BY JENNIFER YIP
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eaving the familiarity of home to move to a strange, foreign place is every child’s nightmare. For senior Laxmi Lama this became a reality when she was about 11 years old. Lama grew up in Nepal, where she lived in a close community of family and friends. Unfortunately, her father was not around much and only visited about once every two years because of his job; he travelled as a chef, mostly around Asia and the Caribbean, in order to make money and send it back to his family. “My dad was [back and forth] overseas for about 10 years. He left Nepal when I was a little kid and came back to visit when my mom was pregnant but left for Dubai a day before my sister was born. She had only seen our dad once before we moved here,” she says. When Lama, her mother, and her sister moved to the United States in December of 2008 to lead better lives, they were unprepared for the culture shock they would soon experience as immigrants. Learning English and trying to feel comfortable with American culture was not, and is still not, easy for Lama. “When I came to America, the most shocking part for me was hearing people’s names. It freaked me out,” she jokes when discussing English language and pronunciation. Luckily for Lama, she has never felt ashamed of her unique name because in Nepal, “Laxmi” or “Lakshmi” is the goddess of wealth. Lama’s first language was Nepali, Tamang being the specific dialect. Because of her tan skin and heavy accent, she was alienated and bullied by her peers in middle school, making it hard for her to make friends. Ironically, in a country that boasts its openness, Lama feels more unaccepted than anything. When explaining the differences between the U.S.and Nepal, she says, “It’s not just the culture; everything is different. In Nepal, we know everyone in the neighborhood and we talk to everyone, but here, it’s more uncomfortable.” Although Nepal is a third world country where running water and electricity is not always available, Lama appreciates its simplicity. However, there are many things she appreciates about the U.S., like its diversity and opportunities. Even after seven years of living in the U.S., the homesickness of being away from Nepal sticks strongly with Lama. It was especially hard being 8,000 miles from all of her loved ones when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 hit Nepal in April earlier this year, followed closely by aftershocks in May. “I have no words for it. I cried and cried and cried about it. Thousands of people died, but I couldn’t do anything about it. That is what
sucked the most: not being able to go back to the country when it needed help,” Lama expresses. But, distance did not stop her from sending support. Many of her relatives passed as a result of the earthquake, and she decided she needed to do something to honor her homeland. She talked to JROTC Colonel Leo Nascimento about fundraising for Nepal, and, together, they talked to Principal Ericka Lovrin, who approved of her plan. For a couple weeks, Lama went from homeroom to homeroom asking students for donations and wrote letters to teachers and staff members asking them to offer some aid. It was a tiring but worthy process, and Lama ended up raising about $900 to send back to Nepal. While there are not many Nepalese students at Washington, Lama finds comfort in the large Nepalese community in San Francisco. They meet up frequently for casual get-togethers, parties, and special events. “There are a lot of people who are my age. I love those days because I get to spend time with my Nepalese friends; it’s different when I’m around them,” Lama states with gratitude. She also practices traditional dance on weekends with the community, and they practice for months to prepare for their New Year’s performances. It reminds her of the fun festivities and school shows back in Nepal, where she would often perform with her classmates. Lama also practices Buddhism, a common religion in Nepal. Rather than going to temple worships all the time, her family makes it a daily routine to pray to the statues of gods they have at home as a way to relieve their inner stresses and worries. Buddhism and Nepalese culture have taught Lama to be especially aware of her behavior around others. “I’m way different at school than [when I am] at home or around [anyone in the] Nepalese community; I have to be careful about how I act,” she reveals. From Buddhism, Lama has learned to be a person who treats others with love and does what is morally right. From Nepalese culture, Lama has learned to always bow down to her elders, greet others by putting her hands together and saying “Namaste,” and be especially polite and respectful to those around her. The only time Lama returned to visit Nepal since moving here was in 2014, and even though she loves the country she came from, she sees a better future for herself in the U.S. Lama aims to make a name for herself and, more importantly, to make her parents proud and feel that their sacrifices were worth it. While she is not sure if she will ever permanently move back to Nepal, one thing is for sure: no matter where Lama finds herself in life, she will always have the country and culture in her heart. 15
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DEAVON SMITH BY CARMEN ZHEN
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torming down the hallway with his earphones plugged in, senior Deavon Smith is hard to miss, especially with his black and blond hair and striking features. “I’m Italian, Irish, and Black,” reveals Smith. Growing up, he always felt like he didn’t fit in with the African American side of his family. “I was–like, the whitest and everyone was darker toned. It’s not that they made me feel uncomfortable, it was just me,” he says. On the other hand, he never felt like an outsider with his Italian and Irish side of the family. The realization that he would never look similar to a branch of his family tree hit Smith pretty hard during his youth. At family reunions, Smith felt uncomfortable and out of place. “I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb,” Smith elaborates. “I was very different and didn’t relate to anyone even though [they were] my family. They would jokingly call me ‘Casper’ and I would laugh, but it always annoyed me when they called me that.” Smith explains that he does not feel very close to either side of his family today. “Most of my mom’s side of the family is on the east coast, so I don’t really have a relationship with them…[and] I’ve never really been close with my dad’s side of the family. I used to occasionally see them...but now–not really.” Not being able to fit in with part of his family took a toll on Smith’s self-confidence. “I’m kinda nervous now going around them because of what their impression of me will be, since I haven’t seen them in a long time,” he says. “I usually don’t really care that much of what anyone thinks [of] me, but they’re my family. I do wish to become close with them or at least see them before I graduate.” Fortunately, as he got older, Smith felt more comfortable in his own skin and accepted who he was. Back in middle school, he used to be really insecure about his body and expressing his emotions. He always had a hard time showing his emotions to his friends and family, but as
he matured, his confidence and strength grew tremendously. He gained the courage to communicate his feelings to others and to love himself. Additionally, he slowly began learning things about himself he didn’t know before, including his sexuality. Sexual orientation is generally divided into three categories: heterosexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality. Smith, however, does not believe in the concept of labels and categories when it comes to one’s sexuality. Though he started becoming interested in guys in middle school, he never saw himself as gay or bisexual despite society’s attempts to categorize and label him. “I like guys,” says Smith. “And I used to actually have a genuine interest in girls, but through me growing up, I saw that love can transcend beyond labels…I just like who I like.” He believes that people shouldn’t be so quick to categorize themselves because they have so many years ahead of them to be open to new things and experiences. “Let’s say you go all your life labeling yourself as a straight male or female,” Smith says. “And one day you come across someone of the same sex and you fall absolutely in love with them and see them as your soul mate, but you always called yourself straight, and once you admit that you are attracted to the same sex, people will look at you as a liar.” Just like how he likes who he likes, he wears what he likes. “I see fashion as an art form and I wear whatever I want,” expresses Smith. “I don’t care if people think it’s weird or anything because it makes me happy and that’s how I want to express myself.” With his skin-tight jeans and oversized sweaters and jackets, it’s obvious that his sense of style is unique. Smith’s outfits are a representation of who he is, and accurately reflect his lively and open personality. After a long roller coaster ride of learning about and accepting himself, Smith can finally say he is happy with who he is.
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FATIMA ALHAKIM BY JHOSELENE ALVARADO
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Being a Middle Eastern Arab has taught me to be a strong woman,” says senior Fatima Alhakim. Alhakim and her family left Syria when she was only one year old. Knowing Syria was not a safe place to raise Alhakim and her two older brothers, her parents decided to uproot their family and move to the United States for a chance at the American Dream. “My parents wanted my brothers and I to attend college,” she says. Her family first moved to Houston in 1999 and then to San Francisco a year later. Living in the U.S. has not prevented Alhakim and her family from practicing Islam and celebrating their ethnicity. In fourth grade she made the decision to wear a hijab, a scarf that Muslim women choose to wear as a way to keep their “modesty and privacy protected.” Alhakim explains, “Some women also choose to wear it to show that they have gone through puberty.” Alhakim recalls a time when she stood up for herself after a woman called her out for wearing her hijab. “[She] asked me, ‘Why do you wear that?’ I told her why, and she said, ‘When I was in Turkey, women had a choice.’ I then said, ‘It [was] my choice and I chose to wear it.’ She walked away. I had a feeling she thought I was going to let her get away with judging me. But knowing the person I am, I will never let someone put me down. A woman behind her approached me and said, ‘I’m sorry you have to deal with ignorant people like her’ and I told her, ‘It’s okay, this isn’t my first time.’” Alhakim knows that even though people will look at her differently for wearing her hijab, she still “[feels] beautiful.” Alhakim always wants to learn more about her religion. She constantly asks her family questions about it, and even travels to a mosque in Milpitas every Thursday night to attend a program featuring speeches on topics ranging from life and love to the five pillars of Islam. During these speeches, men and women are separated by a curtain as a way to “keep temptation away” while the speaker sits in the middle so both
parties are focused on the speech. Alhakim’s family also has an Islamic calendar which they use to help remind them of all the different Islamic holidays like Eid Al Adha, a festival to commemorate Ibrahim’s willingness to follow Allah, and Eid Al Fitr, which marks the end of the monthlong fast of Ramadan and the start of a feast that lasts up to three days in some countries. Staying true to her family’s culture is important to Alhakim. In her religion, men are allowed more independence than women. They are allowed to marry up to four women at a time, whereas women are often subject to arranged marriages. However, these customs don’t stop Alhakim from being independent. She says her religion has actually taught her to only speak her mind when needed. For example if she wants to say a bad word, but knows it’s wrong she will “only think it.” Alhakim chooses to ignore the fact that, many times, a man’s voice comes before a woman’s. “To me it’s not the man or the woman; it’s the person with the most courage and intelligence,” she explains. Because of her religion and ethnicity, Alhakim is no stranger to hateful and racist remarks. In middle school, Alhakim was often called things like “towel head, C-4, bomber, terrorist, bald, and worst of all, Osama Bin-Laden’s daughter.” She describes her three years in middle as “hell.” Hurtful comments like these often bring people down, but Alhakim chooses to ignore them. “I [feel] that people who say racist comments are not knowledgeable enough,” she says. Alhakim’s mother has taught her to ignore the hate she experiences. “She taught me to love and respect everyone.” When asked her opinion on the Syrian Refugee Crisis, Alhakim says “I’m mad that the American Dream isn’t gonna be given to people who need it the most. The American Dream was offered to my brothers, cousins and myself. It is not fair that people who are [being persecuted], and running for their lives are gonna have the door of success shut in their face. Everyone deserves to be welcomed.”
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ELAINE MEI BY MELODY YAN
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an Francisco epitomizes the idea of America as a cultural melting pot. It is not uncommon to hear Caucasians in a restaurants order food in fluent Mandarin nor is it strange to walk a few blocks away from Chinatown and suddenly end up in “Little Italy.” S.F is a city for those who defy cultural norms, and the perfect place for junior Elaine Mei, who is ethnically Chinese, but considers Spanish to be her native language. Mei was born in San Francisco, but her family moved to Mexico when she was very young. They returned to the city six years ago, but adjusting from one country to another hasn’t been easy. “It took me awhile to get used to San Francisco. I’m still not used to it,” she says. Mei still doesn’t know her way around very well, but luckily, Google Maps is always at hand when she explores the city. Though Mexico was her home when she was growing up, she hasn’t felt homesick since she left. “I feel [most] at home where my family is,” she expresses. When at home, Mei speaks to her parents in Chinese, though they both speak and understand Spanish. “My dad doesn’t want to [speak Spanish] because he doesn’t want to lose his [native] language. I mean, he knows stuff, but he just doesn’t want to speak it. Sometimes I find it weird when he understands things. [I’m] like, ‘Dad you knew that?!’” Mei says. With her mom, it’s a little different. “If I don’t know how to explain something, I [speak] Spanish to her. I kind of, like, mix both. I just switch to [the other] language, and she gets it,” Mei explains. Though Asians are considered a minority in Mexico, Mei didn’t feel like she was treated differently because of her race. While she lived there, people were generally accepting of the fact that she spoke fluent Spanish despite being Chinese. Stereotypes didn’t play a role in Mei’s life in Mexico, but at Wash-
ington, she’s been stereotyped as the “typical Asian.” Mei doesn’t like the stereotypes assigned to Asians or Latinos. “Being Chinese, [I] get more ‘Oh, you’re smart.’ [Latinos] get ‘Oh, they missed class, [they’re] bad people, [and are in] gangs and stuff.’ It bothers me because I know [Latinos], and they’re not like that,” Mei stresses. Some people at school are surprised that she can roll her r’s perfectly and speak the language without a hitch, and some have even called her Latina because of it. “People say ‘Dude, you’re a [Hispanic] person’ and I’m like no, I’m Chinese,’” Mei says. Though she enjoys eating traditional Mexican food and watching telenovelas on the daily, she doesn’t think of herself as Latina or celebrate the holidays. However, living in Mexico shaped her views and made her more open-minded, especially regarding immigrants trying to come to the U.S. “[They] come here for something more--a better future for their kids and everything.” Growing up in Mexico and being Chinese, Mei feels connected to both cultures. “I eat Chinese food and I speak Spanish with my brothers, and I understand Spanish and Chinese culture too,” Mei says. However, she does have a soft spot for Mexican food. “My mom cooks it when I get bored of Chinese food.” Mei also says that she has more Latino friends than Chinese or Asian ones. “I have more things in common with them,” she says. “Our language, and funny things we can say in Spanish...I think it’s just sharing a [familiar] language that connects me more,” she explains. If there is one thing Mei is certain about, it’s who she is. Living in Mexico as a person of Chinese descent hasn’t caused her to sink into an identity crisis. She doesn’t think of race as a factor that should define people, but rather their character. “I’m human,” Mei says simply.
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MAXIMILIANO MARTINEZ BY BENJAMIN TOLEDO
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Since I was little, trying to fit in with the girls was hard, because when I would be told by people, like family, to do traditional “girly” stuff--it made me feel really uncomfortable. It caused a lot of dysphoria.” Meet Maximiliano Martinez. Biologically female, he identifies as male. Max has always known who he is. When he wasn’t in middle school wearing a uniform, he would wear “boy clothes”, such as camo cargo shorts, blue jeans and soccer jerseys, instead of skirts and dresses. He dressed this way because it made him happy. Max recalls that at one point, he even cut his own hair and eyelashes to look like a boy. However, his peers were not accepting of him. “[People would say] ‘Why don’t you dress more girly?’ and that was confusing as hell because [during school] we wore uniforms,” says Max. When Max first began to dress the way he felt most comfortable, his mom would say things like, “Put on a dress!” And he’d reply, “Are you gonna buy me the dress? Because if you do, I’ll cut it up and make a shirt, and wear it… maybe.” Max’s birth name is Victoria, which he used to go by, until the beginning of high school, when he started going by Vic. Max disliked being called Victoria since the name didn’t reflect his gender identity. Even though he started to go by Vic, people still referred to him using female pronouns. “There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘Which pronoun do you prefer?’ It’s actually respectful,” he explains. Max thinks that being curious isn’t bad, but people shouldn’t just assume. “It’s tiring constantly [having] to correct people,” he says. Max’s mom is Mexican American and a devout Catholic. She believes that his choice to identify as a male is wrong because it goes against her faith. Despite his mother’s disapproval, Max has always stayed true to himself. He’s thankful for people like his grandpa, who
support him. “It’s really funny though, because she’d tell my grandfather ‘Help me; she’s dressing weirdly,’ but he’d just say, ‘Some people are just like that; just leave her alone.’ No matter how thick the wall in front of you is, everyday you’re chipping at it, little by little, and there will come a day when you can see nothing but the light,” says Max. After years of convincing, Max’s mom finally allowed him to change his name, but on one condition: she got to choose the name. She chose the name Maximiliano, which she liked because it “sounded Mexican.” In addition to changing his name, Max also changed his gender marker to male. This means that he is legally a male on paper and, therefore, can now legally use the men’s bathroom. “I feel really good having that option,” says Max. Max has a number of passions. Besides going to school, he’s pretty busy. He loves to play soccer, and has been playing since he was six years old. However, he’s always played on a girls soccer team, since the coaches wouldn’t let him on the boys team. He plays center and goalie. Max is also into all types of art, like theater and painting, but he especially likes music. Max plays the guitar and is in the marching band where he plays the flute. He enjoys learning songs, and plays “any music except country.” “Art is the only way of expressing yourself that isn’t bad,” he explains. It’s a way for Max to express how he’s feeling, in ways that simple communication cannot. Max is also passionate about making people feel better. He will go out of his way to help classmates, family, and friends. Max volunteers at food banks and plays music for the elderly. He gets really nervous if friends don’t feel good because he knows what it’s like to feel alone. Max also wants people to be there for him when he’s feeling down. “Its really good for someone to have someone there when they’re having a hard time,” Max says. 23
YU’NASIA LEDBETTER BY HANAKI SATO
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here is not a day that I go to school and see Yu’nasia Ledbetter without a smile on her face. When I’m having a bad day, I know I can always count on Ledbetter to make me feel better. As expected, when Ledbetter came to meet me, the first thing I saw was her great big smile followed by an apology for being late. We sat down and began a conversation that would change my perspective on life. Ledbetter began by telling me about her family. She explained, “My family, they’re loving and caring. We have problems but what family doesn’t? They’re crazy, but I am too. Sometimes we [pull] pranks on each other. The way we talk, we kind of yell at each other, but that’s like our understanding.” After having a few classes with Ledbetter, I realized that her aunt often comes to class to check up on her. This led me to ask her about her relationship with her parents. Ledbetter says, “[Ever] since I was little, my parents weren’t that good at taking care of me. I was going back and forth living with my parents because they weren’t together. My dad lives in Concord and my mom lives in San Francisco. There was a time in my life when both my parents went to jail so my grandma took me in and had custody of me.” Ledbetter has a 13-year-old brother and six year old brother. When she was younger, she often took care of her now 13-year-old brother while her mom was “running the street.” She adds, “It’s like I’m his second mom in a way because I learned how to cook from him, I learned how to clean from him and I learned how to potty train him; I did it all when my mom was gone. So our relationship is very close. When he was little I used to tell him to say Yu’nasia and he could never say my name so he be like ‘Nay-ya, Nay-ya’ so till this day he still calls me ‘Nayya.’ My younger brother, we’re cool. He’s bad though but because he’s little he loves me. I still have a close relationship with him.” When Ledbetter told me that there was a time both her parents went to jail, I wondered if she, at such a young age, understood where they were going. Ledbetter says, “To be honest, since I was little, my parents were going back and forth to jail. They already had a record even before I was born, so it was kind of something you get used to. Every year I heard how my mom’s back in jail. So I would just be like, ‘Oh ok,’ and then in a couple months she’d be out and then she’d go right back in. My dad, he would go in for a long time, and come back out... My mom hasn’t been in jail for like two to three years, so I feel like that’s a really good thing. The difficult thing is [that] my dad, he just went back to jail. I’m dealing with that [now] and I’m taking it in.” With her parents constantly in and out of jail, Ledbetter often found herself feeling alone, and like she didn’t have anyone she could turn to. “It was pretty hard because when you feel like you’re alone and you don’t have anybody and you see other people with their parents, it is kind of difficult. But I understand [my parents] were going through a lot, bringing me in and stuff like that. It was hard and I [now] understand that, but I didn’t when I was little. It hurt me a lot and I felt like I really didn’t have anybody... I felt like I was alone and I felt like no one really understood me like my mom.” She adds, “I tell my mom everything. She’s more than my best friend, more than a mother to me. I tell her every single thing. From secrets to non-secrets. Like she just knows.” When she was younger, Ledbetter was never the type to show her
feelings. She didn’t want anyone to know what she was dealing with or feel sorry for her. She adds, “Both of my parents are very strong minded people so showing their emotions is hard, so I guess maybe that’s where I get it from. When I was little I did a lot of crying behind doors, or talked to my best friend Meianna, who knows about everything. When I come to school though, I try not to bring that whole situation…I don’t want people to know what I’m going through.” Learning from her parents’ mistakes, Ledbetter decided that she wants to have a different future than them. Ledbetter plans on going to college and one day hopes to be a psychiatrist so that she can help others going through difficult times. She adds, “My whole motto is not to be like anyone else but me. So it’s like I’m trying to not be the same, or make the same mistakes. I have my own mind and my own set of goals.” Now, Ledbetter often goes to church, which she credits to her being so positive. During one church service, she realized that what the preacher was saying closely related to her life. She adds, “I heard the things that you go through make you a stronger person. So I have to realize it’s my parents fault that they did that; it’s not mine and I can’t be like them. My mom and dad told me they want me to be way way better than them and that’s what I’m trying to do. I want people to look at me and say, ‘Oh, she’s strong and what she goes through, she doesn’t let that interfere with her.’ And that’s what I want people to know. Just because you’re going through stuff, you can’t let it bring you down.” Ledbetter sometimes finds herself asking God why certain things are happening to her but she realizes that she instead has to thank God regardless of the situation and ask that he make her a stronger, better person. She adds, “I think if I sit up here and really react [to] what my parents did; I feel like I wouldn’t be up here today and be a strong person. At the end of the day if I did that I know I’d end up just like my parents and I definitely don’t want to do that. I want to be better.” Ledbetter is known amongst her friends as their “mother.” She got this nickname because she cares for them as if they are her kids, but she sees it as simply being a good friend. When her friends are going through tough times, Ledbetter always wants to be there for them because she understands what it’s like to feel alone. She adds, “When they tell me their problems I understand how they feel. I tell them, ‘Keep your head up no matter what you go through; don’t let that bring you down.’ You have to learn how to put a smile on your face, because you don’t know, if when you’re walking down the street and you smile, you feel me, you can brighten someone else’s day, you feel me? They can feel you from a far distance. So it’s just like you need to be strong because I feel like [when] God puts us through things, it’s for a reason. It’s for us to take it like a punch in our chest and you gotta just smile at it. That’s how I feel like.” Before having this conversation with Ledbetter, I always saw her as a positive, happy-go-lucky girl. But after learning about her life and upbringing, I have a newfound respect for her. The way she looks at life, the way she handles situations, I think we can all learn from Ledbetter. Ledbetter had one last thing to say to the readers, “I’m very open. I’m crazy. I just want to tell people: whatever you’re going through, smile through it; you’re not going through it by yourself. And if you don’t have someone to talk to, come to me!” 25
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IRIS SIGUENZA BY ANNIE LEI
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Doing well in school is my way of paying them back for all they’ve given me,” says senior Iris Siguenza about her parents, who were both born in El Salvador and immigrated to the U.S. when they were around 20 years old. Siguenza’s father was a sub lieutenant in the Salvadoran army and immigrated because he no longer wanted to be a part of the Salvadoran Civil War after serving for many years. At the time, her mother was a college student. Siguenza’s parents met and got married in San Francisco. “It was hard for them to integrate themselves into a whole new type of society where they didn’t speak the main language,” Siguenza explains, but now her parents have thrived as residents in San Francisco for the past 30 years. Siguenza helps her parents with translating legal documents and filling out her younger sister’s paper work in English--responsibilities that are common amongst first generation children. “As I [have gotten] older, I definitely [feel] that [my parents and I] got closer because I began to share responsibilities with them,” says Siguenza. Siguenza’s family plays a big role in her motivation to succeed. “My family is really hard working,” she says. “I’ve developed my tenacity because of the way I’ve seen my parents constantly work.” Being the oldest, Siguenza wants to be a role model for her sister: “If she’s going to be influenced by my actions, I want to lead her down a positive road.” Siguenza has a 4.0 unweighted GPA and consistently challenges herself in extracurricular activities. “Recently I’ve joined Speech and Debate and find it to be something that I like and hope to become better at,” adds Siguenza. Most of her weekends are set aside for Minds Matter, an academic program that involves writing essays, filling out applications and going through interview processes. Aside from Minds Matter, she is involved in Teens for Charity and Junior Nurses. Through her involvement with Junior Nurses, Siguenza discovered her interest in medicine and now has her heart set on becoming a doctor. “The direct impact you can have on an individual’s life really made me lean towards the medical field,” she explains.
In the Latin American culture, teenage girls are expected to have a quinceañera, a party symbolizing the transition into womanhood. Siguenza opted out of having a quinceañera for the opportunity to learn. She instead used the money that would have been spent on the party to go to China as a Student Ambassador. The opportunity arose through a program called “People to People Student Ambassadors,” which is a travel abroad program for students that requires nominations from teachers. As a Student Ambassador, Siguenza traveled to different schools and interacted with people of different Asian backgrounds while in China. The decision to go to China is one she does not regret making to this day. “China, for me, was a full immersion into a new culture. It was a place I never thought I’d go to,” says Siguenza. While in China, she stayed with a family in Gongcheng Yao County who spoke no English at all. Although she was not able to communicate with them verbally, she had a life changing experience. She says, “I learned that language barriers may be present, but making a connection with someone goes beyond the use of words.” She describes her trip as “a surreal experience.” Earlier this year, Siguenza attended a Speech and Debate competition. In a room full of her competitors, she became self conscious about the way she looked because she was the only one of Hispanic ethnicity. She did not let her uneasiness get in the way of competing, though, and earned a near perfect score of 5 out of 6 in her first Congress competition. Siguenza embraces her ethnicity but does not allow it to fully define who she is: “Although I value my Hispanic ideals such as education and family closeness, I do not let it be the only influence on what I do and who I am.” From her past experiences, she has not felt targeted in any way because of her ethnicity, but rather she’s “had to try harder to stand out because of it.” Instead of letting Hispanic stereotypes bring Siguenza down, she uses them to strengthen her will to do well. “Sometimes I think it’s just all in my head though and it’s not like I try to defy the stereotypes, but it’s just that I try my best regardless of them.”
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Multiracial Students of Wash BY DEAVON SMITH
Three multiracial GWHS students were asked: 1. What’s your ethnicity? 2. Have you ever had any negative thoughts on being multiracial? 3. What are some stereotypes that you dislike about your race, and how do you deal with these stereotypes? 4. Has having interracial parents ever made you feel uncomfortable or insecure? 5. What do you like about being multiracial? Their answers are featured below. 1. “I am half Black and half Japanese.” 2. “Yes, when I was younger I felt left out [because] I was one of the few biracial students at my school. As I got older, I got used to it, and now I am very proud of my ethnicity.” 3. “Black stereotypes I dislike include: you are a thief, you got “Hops,” you’re part of gang, you live in the “hood’ and you’re “ghetto.” The Japanese stereotypes I dislike are you must be really smart, you love math, and you must have small eyes. I deal with all of these stereotypes by just ignoring them and they don’t hurt me because at the end of the day they’re just words coming out of people’s mouths.” 4. “Yes, all the time. When we walk into restaurants as a family people always stare at us or give us odd looks. Especially when I’m with my mother, who is Japanese, and we’re walking down the street; people will look at us with a confused face.”
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Kai Moody
5. “What I love about being biracial is that I get to experience both cultures at once. They’re two very distinct lifestyles.”
Jack Matull 1. “I am half German and half Japanese. My German family immigrated in the early 1960’s to Sacramento, and my Japanese family immigrated in 1898 to Kauai, Hawai’i.” 2. “I wouldn’t say I’ve ever had negative thoughts on being biracial. I think the closest thing to a negative thought would be that whenever I am with a group of Asian people, I feel more white, and when I’m with a group of white people, I feel more Asian. I guess you could see it as [feeling] left out, but I see it as being unique and I enjoy being different in that sense.” 3. “I hate how some people assume [that] because I’m German, that I am or my ancestors were Nazis. Which is not true! When it comes to the whole Nazi thing, I just say, “No,” and then I try to change to the topic of the conversation. Another stereotype I hate is when I tell people I’m German and they just think I’m white. I try to make it as clear as possible that I am German and not “just white.” Finally, something I’ve noticed over the years is that people tend to think my German side is more American or has lived in the U.S. longer than my Japanese side. This is not true because I don’t have any remaining relatives in Japan, whereas, in Germany, I have many aunts, uncles, and cousins that I have yet to meet. My German grandparents are fluent in German and grew up in Germany. However, my Japanese grandparents have lived their entire lives in the U.S. and don’t speak a lick of Japanese. I think people are more accustomed to the idea of Asian people as immigrants rather than Europeans or whites because that is the common trend in San Francisco and along the West Coast.” 4. “I have never felt insecure about having parents of different ethnicities because it was how I was brought up and it seemed perfectly normal to me. My dad and I don’t really look like each other at all, so when my friends meet my dad they don’t believe he’s my father and it’s funny to see their reactions.” 5. “I enjoy knowing how different my Japanese and German sides are and how they’re connected through me. I like being known as a hapa. I like knowing that one of my great grandparents is from Diepholz, Germany, and another is from Saitama, Japan. I think being biracial helps me broaden my mind about different cultures and ethnicities, knowing how different the cultures of my German and Japanese sides are. It’s fun being part of two ethnicities, feeling equally comfortable in two distinctive cultures, and how I can stand out in the crowd without even trying.”
Alex Duong 1. “My ethnicity is Chinese, German, French, and Italian.” 2. “Yeah, I do have negative thoughts sometimes. I feel like because I’m biracial I’m expected to achieve the standards and expectations of both of my races and I feel like I don’t. But, I don’t let my race dictate how I feel about myself as a person because I know it shouldn’t matter.” 3. “I dislike that white people are stereotyped as perfect [and] even though I’m only half, I feel like I want to or should be like that, even if it is [untrue]. Stereotypes that I don’t like about Asians are that they’re suppose to be really smart and well mannered because although I am both, it’s only to a certain extent. It’s easy to feel like I don’t fit the stereotypes of either of my races because they’re both different and society views both races differently. I don’t let these stereotypes get to the point where I overcompensate to be them, but they are just little things that bother me when I really think about where I stand in the midst of everything.” 4. “I remember when I was younger, I didn’t even know what race I was because [that’s] not really something a child thinks about, you know? But, my Asian side of the family always commented on how I [have] mixed blood and it made me feel kinda weird cause I didn’t know what [that] meant. My brother and I are the only half white people in our family and that’s something my mom’s side of the family talks about and it makes me uncomfortable because although I know they love me, they always make jokes about us being mixed. I didn’t know my dad growing up so I’ve never had issues with an interracial marriage, but it makes me feel like I’m not really white since I don’t know him or his family.” 5. “One thing I like about being biracial is my appearance. I’ve gotten a lot of different guesses on what my race is and it’s kinda funny. I like my eyes and my freckles because I know I got them from my birth dad along with some [of his] personality traits.”
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ANDRE HIGGINBOTHAM BY BITOTA MPOLO
Q: How does having two different backgrounds affect you today? A: It has affected me in a lot of different ways. For starters, as a teacher, it’s one of these things where I [understand] a lot of the issues that our students, especially some that the minority students, have. Because it’s not necessarily easy being in an education system that is not necessarily designed to really facilitate your background, the way you learn, how you interact. I get that because that’s kind of where I came from… I feel like I kind of get a lot of things based on my experiences because race is funny and race can dictate how hard you have to play the game...But [race] is there, and you just learn how to work with it and how to embrace it.
Q: How have your two different races impacted your life while growing up? A: It has affected my life dramatically for good and bad [reasons]. I guess the first thing is [that] growing up was one of these things where I had the blessing and burden of being racially ambiguous. People can’t really tell what I am: half Black and half Mexican. It’s one of these things where people can tell that I’m Brown but they can’t necessarily tell that I’m half Black. And I have a lighter complexion and my hair is a little bit straighter; it’s not as curly... I grew up in a community [where] you were either, for the most part, Mexican or White. There were some people that were Black mixed in but that was about it. It was kind of hard because a lot of the Latinos I grew up with, they were really racist towards Blacks. [Sometimes] I thought I was too Black to hang out with the Mexicans but I was also not Black enough to hang out with the Black kids. So I was kind of in this weird middle ground and it gave me the opportunity to be a wallflower and when I say wallflower I mean kind of just an observer to all these experiences. Growing up, those experiences were good and bad but you know one of those bad things was that a lot of people held a lot of racist beliefs that they wouldn’t necessarily share around certain people…. Sometimes they didn’t realize I was Black when saying those racist things around me and that gave me red flags. On the flip side, it’s also one of these things [that has] allowed me to kind of move around from different groups because you know… in San Francisco we have the benefit of being super diverse [and] the idea of having diverse friends [is] normal; but that wasn’t the case when I was growing up. Being interracial really allowed me to switch around from different groups so I got really good at code switching, this idea that you talk certain ways around different groups to fit in. As I grew up it was also one of these things where you never quite fit in when you are half something and half something else and you’re kind of in limbo sometimes. So yeah, there was some good and bad but I am happy with the way I turned out; I’m proud of the way I turned out.
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Q: Do you think you adopted one culture more than another? A: Yeah, totally. So, with me, I think because of my circumstances, I adapted more to my Latino culture because where I grew up there wasn’t a large black population. It was pretty much all kids that were white and kids that were Mexican, and on top of that my Black family was all on the East Coast. So really what that meant was that I grew up in a heavily Latino culture. So there was me, always the odd ball because I looked a little bit different and I was mixed. But my uncles, they were dudes that were like Cholos and my Chola aunts, riding in lowriders. That’s kind of what I was raised around. But, again, given my circumstances it was one of these things where it’s great because I had that part of my life, but at the same time I have been able to successfully cross a lot of different cultural boundaries.
Q: Do You Think there is a difference now in growing up as a mixed child from back then? A: Nowadays, growing up mixed is way more socially acceptable. Back in the day, around the seventies, when my mom and dad got together, it was kind of socially taboo. My mom was kicked out for dating a black guy and having a child with a black guy. And yeah, they got that resolved but it took like five years. But now… things are changing, and I think they’re finally changing for the good. And you see on television commercials a couple that is black and white or you’ll see a couple that is Asian and white you’ll see this positive mix of races and it’s a step in the right direction. It’s becoming more and more socially acceptable and okay and I think people that are mixed just like myself have reached this point where you’re feeling less like an oddball caught between two worlds because now [there’s a] perception that you’re not different; you’re just normal.
SERGIO COSTANTINI BY BITOTA MPOLO
Q: Do you think having parents from two different cultures has had an impact on your life?
Q: How has your race shaped who you are today? A: I grew up with parents that were both from different cultures. They were born in different countries. My mom is Brazilian and my dad is Italian. I was born in New York so I am American. I didn’t really think that it really influenced me until I started getting a little bit older and becoming close friends with people and I started noticing cultural differences. It’s not that I would say one culture is better than another, but I just noticed that the perspective on family, manners, interpersonal communication, those kinds of things were very different. Where I found myself being a lot more selfless, which was the way of the culture that I grew up in, other people were a lot more selfish, like the American [mindset] was very selfish. That’s what I noticed, that a lot of differences were very cultural. In New York City I did not notice a lot of difference, but when me and my parents moved to Florida I noticed a huge amount of differences. For example, people would always think I was Spanish. They would think I was Mexican or an immigrant. People would always correct me on my name, Sergio. They would say, “Sergio (Ser-he-o)” and I would say, “No it’s Sergio (Sir-g-o).” They would keep correcting me on my name and it got kind of absurd where people were like, “No no no no Ser-he-o,” and I would say, “No, I’m not Hispanic. I’m Brazilian and Italian.” Both pronunciations are very different from Spanish. It would either be Ser-ju or Ser-jo, which is why I say Ser-g-o… I myself don’t feel like I have been targeted for any extreme kinds of racism. I think there were cultural misunderstandings, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that kind of bigotry.
A: Totally, in a lot of ways. For example, I ended up having to do a lot of translation and communication for my mom and even more so for my dad because my dad barely spoke English. The English that he did speak, other people did not understand. I understood but I guess that his accent was thick. It definitely affected their ability to get jobs. My parents ended up having to work very working class jobs. My dad was a busboy and my mom drove tourists around. They were never able to get really high paying jobs because of them being from another country. Because of that I found myself in a lot of weird situations like, for example, [I was] making more money than my dad at my job at 16 years old at the mall. It definitely impacted me because it made me more aware and more compassionate of people’s struggles, where I feel like if you don’t know the immigrant experience then you’re not very compassionate about it. I would never look down upon a person for not being from here. I never assumed that they were lesser than me or dumb, but I feel that a lot of my American friends did. I think that was because a lack of understanding to a person’s individual struggle. Just having access to the English language is an incredible [advantage] when it comes getting a job and I understood that just because someone was a busboy and an immigrant doesn’t mean they are stupid. It just meant that they did not have the same amount of access and privilege as someone else. And so I was just a lot more compassionate and I ended up stopping people that were incredibly rude to that and I still do that to this day because I look at certain people and say that could be my parent. Q: Do you think have parents from two different cultures impacted you? A: Yes, I have to say that culturally it’s… interesting. I think [because of] my name Sergio Costantini, especially when I was living in New York, people kind of put more of an Italian-American stereotype on me. However, I know this is typical in many households but, my mom always cooked; you know, she was the one who always managed the house. So, at home my culture was always much more Brazilian. I’m not fluent in Italian. I am fluent in Portuguese, which is the language of Brazil. That’s because my mom kind of took over and said okay, you are going to be attached to this culture in this way. It wasn’t that my father didn’t want me to be part of his Italian culture; it’s just that it was just how it was and my parents did want me to be bilingual. They were like, “In the house we only speak Portuguese; you will speak English out there.” And me and my brother chose that, so we were both bilingual. I had much more of a Brazilian influence. I ate Brazilian food growing up. My dad was always working and worked two jobs. I would only see him a few hours a day so the Brazilian part of it really took over. So, I think I’m more Brazilian.
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ED MARQUEZ BY WINNIE ZHANG
Q: How has your race, gender, or sexual orientation shaped you? A: Well, my race has shaped me a lot. I think growing up in Oakland and being Chinese, Filipino, and Hispanic and not knowing exactly if there were other nationalities has shaped me because, I think growing up, I was insecure about who/what was my real identity as a person. So, it made me want to identify with certain groups in high school. I thought at times I would want to only be with one race or another, which is kind of racist actually. I said, “Okay, I’m only going to identify with this race because they are very studious.” And so at times I wouldn’t identify with certain nationalities that were part of my blood. It shaped who I hung out with sometimes. I don’t think that was good, but [the reason was] because I didn’t really know who/ what my identity was growing up. Q: To clear things up, you are saying that you weren’t sure about what group(s) to hang out with, and that you also did not know what nationality you truly were? A: I didn’t know fully. I knew from what I was told, but then I also knew from my background that there could be some other nationalities involved. My dad had 17 kids with 5 different women--that’s what we knew of; we didn’t know if we knew the full truth. People say, “Well, what are you?” and I’m like, “Well, I don’t know. What am I?” I didn’t really know it in high school; who do I identify with? That shaped who I ended hanging around with and sort of looking at different groups differently, trying to generalize them, which wasn’t good.
Q: So, college is what helped you move away from sticking to one group of friends? A: Yeah, I think people in college are pretty open minded and most campuses tend to be pretty open-minded about hanging out with different people. That certainly had a huge impact. I think I made some choices regarding what different convictions I’m always going to have; standards I was going to have for my life whether it was physical, academic, religious standards. You just start to define yourself and [in college] I was making decisions about all of that. Then it didn’t become about “What’s my identity?” racially or genderly; it’s “What are my standards for my life that become more important?” I had to either choose between materialism or giving to people. You start defining yourself in terms of morals, ethics, and different values as opposed to your race and nationality or anything.
Q: Looking back at it now, how do you feel? Do you think that it was a good idea that you only hung out with whoever you thought was better?
Q: Are you glad that you experienced something like this in your life? Are you content that you were able to find out your true identity later on in life, or did you feel that you missed out on a lot?
A: No, I think I missed out on a lot of diverse experiences. I mean I would talk to many types of people, but in terms of who I actually hung out with and wanted to be “best friends” with was just one group of people. I think I’ve caught up since then. I’ve reflected and identified it and in college it changed. [But] in high school, I think I missed out on a lot of diversity.
A: I don’t feel that I missed out on a lot anymore. Now, when I look back, it was an experience and like anything else, I learned from it… Like I said, if I missed out, I’ve definitely made up for it. I got married; my wife is British and German and the pastor marrying us was African American. My family and old friends who knew me, they stood back and were like “Okay, he’s really changed.” So, like I said, I pretty much turned the other way around and said that I’m just going to not use color or gender to see people.
Q: What made you change that about you? A: Well, when you’re in college, you reflect on: what was I doing in high school? And you realize that your thoughts probably weren’t as mature. Once you get into college you see there’s so much diversity and people are actually hanging out with different people. You look around to see what’s going on--that certainly had a huge impact. By the time I was a junior in college, I took a complete 180 turn; I began to oversee groups and began to hang out with all sorts of groups.
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Q: So this has been a good experience for you? A: What I went through, yeah I think it was a really good experience. I’m very grateful that I’ve gone through it. We all make choices, I feel like, in high school that like you’re maybe like, ehh, that was not the best choice. Yeah, I think as a whole, I’m happy with how things have turned out