immigrant Archives - Page 2 of 5 - The Race Card Project

Child Immigrant, Grown Defender of America

May 23, 2022May 23, 2022 america, Annapolis, citizen, conflict, defender, image, immigrant, MD, U.S. Military

Ronnie
Annapolis, MD

The image of a child immigrant, who grew up to serve in the U.S. military is a bit cliche these days, especially after more than a decade of conflict. However, there is nothing cliche about an immigrant wanting to defend his adopted nation and his fellow Americans (both fellow immigrants and native citizens). Many of us, who have been given great opportunities by this great (even if flawed) nation, choose to defend it not out of all it has given to us but more out of our love for the grand ideals it stands for.

Yellow: Neither White Nor Black Enough

March 3, 2022March 3, 2022 frustrating, immigrant, Japanese, NC, Raleigh, yellow, Yuri Yamamoto

Yuri Yamamoto,
Raleigh, NC.

I am a Japanese immigrant. I sometimes feel lost in this society where race is all about black and white. I often feel that I am neither white nor black enough to contribute significantly to a diversity conversation, most of which seems to be about reconciliation and healing from the slavery. While growing up in Japan, I learned that we were yellow. I don’t understand why there is no yellow mentioned in this country even though there are histories of East Asian immigrants in the U.S. Also, it is frustrating that being an Asian does not seem to count as “minority” when it comes to higher education and jobs even though we are racial minority.
On another topic, while I would like my racial identity to be acknowledged and embraced, I would not like to be boxed into stereotypes. “I’m Japanese and I’m not Japanese”

No, I’m not faking my accent!

January 2, 2022January 2, 2022 accent, fake, household, immigrant, latina, NY, Panamanian, Rachel James, Syracuse, you don't sound

Rachel James,
Syracuse, NY.

Growing up in a Latina household I learned the English that my mother spoke as a Panamanian immigrant. Therefore, I learned to say certain words while rolling my r’s or with an accent and I don’t notice it because that’s how I learned to pronounce them. But because I look more African than Latina people always think I’m “faking it”, “trying to be something I’m not”, or “trying to show off”. Seriously!? No, I’m not faking my accent!

Latinx adoptee naturalized immigrant Jewish American

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 adopt, adoptee, American, Detroit, diversity, Gift, immigrant, Jeffrey Nolish, Jewish, Latinx, MI, naturalized

Jeffrey Nolish,
Detroit, MI.

We all belong. Diversity is a gift.

Armenian at home; American at school

August 13, 2021 Armenian, CA, immigrant, Los Angeles, Ovsanna, school, siblings

Ovsanna,
Los Angeles, CA

I am an Armenian immigrant living and studying in America with my siblings and my parents.

Bangladeshi-British immigrant. Mom of all-American twins.

July 4, 2021July 4, 2021 1971, All American, Bangladeshi, British, College, identity, immigrant, Pakistan, Round Rock, Sadia Rodriguez, twins, TX

Sadia Rodriguez,
Round Rock, TX.

If I had to limit myself to a single identity, I’d say that I’m a mother of twins above all else. Sure, I’m also a business analyst, a blogger, a divorcee, a permanent resident of the US, a holder of British and Bangladeshi passports and a former US Army wife. My most important role right now is to be my daughters’ mother, and my 7-year-olds’ twinhood is one of the most salient aspects of their identity.

My parents were born in what was then Pakistan, and were college students when their nation of Bangladesh was born in 1971. They moved to the UK for graduate school, and I was born in Oxford, where my father taught chemistry. When I was 8, my parents moved to Bangladesh and I spent the next decade there before emigrating by myself to the US for college.
I know that when people see me, they see someone with brown skin. My daughters’ much lighter skin and lack of my prominent South Asian nose has occasionally prompted questions, but we are fortunate to live in an area where many children come from complex racial backgrounds. Adults are the ones who ask questions regarding the legitimacy of our family. My kids’ friends mostly accept. My daughters have never, to my knowledge, been questioned about their race, although they are sometimes put on the stop regarding their identical twinhood.

Living in Texas and still carrying my ex-husband’s last name, Rodriguez, I am often assumed to have Mexican heritage. My daughters’ paternal grandfather’s family has roots in Mexico. Their grandmother’s hails for all over Western Europe. While those facts are interesting, they have nothing to do with my daughters’ own sense of identity. As my daughter, Jessica, once put it, “I’m a twin and my grandmother lives in England and my grandfather lives in Bangladesh.” To my daughters, these are simply interesting facts, like the fact that I have a mole and Daddy plays the saxophone. Having lived around the world has given me a wonderful perspective on what matters, but I don’t identify with ethnic, national or racial labels. I’m glad to live in a country where we’re actively seeking to look beyond that sort of label.

Immigrant they don’t tell to leave

June 10, 2021September 27, 2021 CA, Cupertino, exception, experience, immigrant, Russian

Anonymous,
Cupertino, CA

This is my experience as a Russian immigrant to the US! Whenever I hear complaints about immigrants, it is always implied that due to my light skin I am an exception.

Χιος to Hughes…we’re all immigrants

May 31, 2021May 31, 2021 america, assimilate, CA, church, CO, Denver, Dream, father, grandfather, Greece, Hughes, immigrant, immigration, Lake Arrowhead, Marine, military, mother, nation, Patricia Hughes, public education, royal, small town, teacher, white, WWII, Χιος

Patricia Hughes,
Lake Arrowhead, CA.

My father’s father took the long route of immigration from Greece during the political upheavals occurring in the early part of the 20th century, and later sent for his family. My father and some of his siblings were born in America. Growing up extremely poor in Denver, Colorado, my father was determined to excel both in education and sports (he was a champion wrestler), and to serve his country as a United States Marine in WWII. Post-war, he earned his degree, and became an elementary teacher in America’s public schools. Then, he literally followed a dream to marry my mother. My mother’s lineage traces back to European royal lines.

Mom and Dad only ever wanted us to “be Americans” and to “assimilate.” Although we love Greek food and culture, we did not, as children, learn the Greek language or continue in the Greek church. It’s interesting to note that my “white” mother was not accepted by my Greek grandfather, for quite some time!

All of us kids grew up in small-town America: Southern California. I chose to follow my father’s path, and became a teacher. I am concluding my own long career in public education, having served the needs of our “ever-immigrant” nation.

We are all immigrants.

First generation immigrant; you’d never know.

March 18, 2021March 18, 2021 1980, Asian, check the box, Choua Yang, conflict, disguise, diversity, escape, first generation, Green Bay, immigrant, Minority, Southeast Asia, turmoil, Vietnam War, Western Culture, WI

Choua Yang,
Green Bay, WI.

I was one of the lucky to escape Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War conflict. It was 1980 and I was only a baby when I came to the United States. As I progressed through school, I was immersed in western culture everywhere but my home; and it frustrated me to no end growing up. I eventually learned to accept my background and I’ve come to terms with my “baggage”, but where that has left me is that I can barely speak my own language, meaning I can barely communicate with my own parents. Professionally, I’ve advanced due to mastery of the English language. If you spoke with me on the phone and didn’t know my name, you’d never know I wasn’t Caucasian, that I wasn’t born in the US. But what this means is I get to be the token “minority” most places I go. They celebrate that with me, they are ushering in “diversity” but in reality, they only want me because I talk and think like they do. It’s a bonus that I can check the “Asian” box on the EEOC forms. Where it leaves me is I’m an outsider everywhere I go – at work, at home. My personal turmoil has left in a space where I don’t fit in anywhere.

Outside I’m Black, inside I’m multitudes

March 5, 2021 america, Black, Bronx, classified, human, immigrant, Inside, Irish Scottish, Julie Bayley, Maroon, multitudes, NY, outside, Spanish, Taíno

Julie Bayley,
Bronx, NY

p>I am so tired of being “classified“. As with most people of darker hue on this side of the diaspora, I am not simply black I am a first-generation American born of immigrants who came here from the Caribbean that gumbo contains Maroon, Spanish, Irish Scottish, and Taino. I will never forget being 10 years old and having a census taker sitting in our dining room becoming frustrated with my mother because each time she was asked to identify the race she said “human”. This was in 1970 that lesson has never left me. However, I’ve had to live in America as if that lesson never existed

My family is not from England

February 23, 2021February 23, 2021 america, Asian, Austronesian, Austronesian Albinism, AZ, colonizer, Daniekke, Engliand, ethnicity, immigrant, Khoi-san, Phoenix, Portuguese, race is a lie, Sardinian, scottish, Siberian, Tibetan

Daniekke,
Phoenix, AZ

The concept of race is a lie. I am pale, but I am not white. I am not from England either which is a large assumption for whites who live in America today. My family is also not from England. I am very mixed ethnic and I am a great-granddaughter of immigrants in America. My family did not participate in slavery. My family was beheaded for fighting for their own freedom, enslaved by other groups, and fled to America. It is upsetting and racist that I must be classified as white, colonizer, and totally erase my family’s history and culture because of the association my skin color brings. It’s also really frustrating that people think if you are pale you cannot have diverse DNA. I’m here to share what a lie it is. I am Portuguese, Asian, Scottish, Sardinian, Siberian, Tibetan, Khoi-san, and even Austronesian carrying rare Austronesian Albinism. I had so many different ethnicities I didn’t have a majority of one particular ethnicity.
Race is a lie that we’ve all been taught to believe and true progressivism is changing the way we talk about it.

Got an accent. In five languages

November 2, 2020November 2, 2020 Aberdeen, accent, African, Cameroon, country, different, immigrant, Ioana Hojda, Itlay, language, mixed, mother, passport, Romania, SD

Ioana Hojda,
Aberdeen, SD

Immigrant, white wife of an African immigrant and mother to mixed boys. We have moved to the US from Italy, our first country of immigration. When we travel abroad we have three different country passports for 5 people: Romania, Cameroon and the US.

I’m only allowed to be white

September 20, 2020February 21, 2021 12, accent, American, Carrie Hunsinger, College, DE, descent, Detroit, Dutch, first experience, Half, Holland, immigrant, school, Speak English, Syrian, white, Wilmington

Carrie Hunsinger,
Wilmington, DE.

I am a 1/2 first generation American. My Mother is American (Detroit) and my father is Dutch (Holland). He’s been here almost 60 years and he still speaks with a heavy Dutch accent and therefore I speak English with a bit of a Dutch accent.
When 9/11 happened I was in college in Newark, NJ. I remember talking about the events in class afterwards and getting yelled at by a Syrian girl during a class because I was talking about my fear of seeing backlash attacks in NJ. From her view I couldn’t know what it was like to be immigrant’s kid in America, because I was white, and could not have immigrant parents. A few days later cops pulled my father over on the highways with a bunch of other people because they were looking for terrorists driving mini-vans and he fit the description since he was tan and had an accent.
I have lost count of how many times I been told that being Dutch and being white is the same thing. That all of the western part of Europe is the same. I’ve been told being of European descent, especially being Dutch, automatically makes both racist and more at fault for slavery then other white people because of the Dutch slaves ships. Also, as I am constantly being mistaken for being German, I have been blamed for the Holocaust as well. I am not allowed to be a Dutch-American, or even a European-American. I don’t normally even see Caucasian listed anymore on forms. I am definitely not allowed to understand immigrant issues or what it’s like to be the first in your family to graduate college, or to have a family that overcame hardships and poverty to find the American Dream. I am not allowed to not be at fault for this country’s past (or Europe’s involvement) even though I learned in school along with all the other immigrants kids. I am part of the problem and at the same time, I’m told there’s nothing I can do help be part of the solution because as a white person, I am the problem.

I’m a PROUD daughter of IMMIGRANTS.

June 22, 2020 Berenis Morales, immigrant, NY, proud

Berenis Morales,
NY

Not Connected To My Own Heritage

September 23, 2019September 23, 2019 Amanda Bajema, america, American, CA, CBU HIS311, Connected, culture, Family, heritage, immigrant, Netherlands, Riverside, The Netherlands.

Amanda Bajema,
Riverside, CA.

When my great grandparents immigrated to America from the Netherlands after World War II they put in their best effort to become a part of American culture, which in turn meant loosing their own. Growing up my mother and her siblings were growing up they were not to learn Dutch, to the extent of not even calling their grandparents Oma and Opa, Dutch for grandma and grandpa. Because my great grandparents felt the need to become American, in a sense, I feel disconnected from my family’s heritage.
CBU HIS311

Boat, plane, train. You’re here now.

September 23, 2019September 23, 2019 boat, Grand Rapids, here now, immigrant, MI, plane, Taylor Smith, train

Taylor Smith,
Grand Rapids, MI.

A Social Construct, Race Matters Everywhere

September 23, 2019September 23, 2019 Afghanistan, CA, Cosumnes River College, geographic, immigrant, matters, Mohammad Salem Shirzad, Race, Sacramento, social construct, society

Mohammad Salem Shirzad,
Sacramento, CA.

As an afghan immigrant, I have witnessed the roots of race in different geographical and social contexts, from Afghanistan to the United States. It is sad to say that race do matter in today’s societies all over the world. But this is the truth in today’s world.

Cosumnes River College

Nobody seems to speak Swedish anymore

September 3, 2019September 3, 2019 awareness, co-worker, crime, culture, feel like a stranger, foreign, foreign language, immigrant, incendiary, label, language, Lars Engström, Morocco, other, Race, religion, school, speak my own language, Sverige., Swedish, work

Lars Engström,
Sverige.

In the US people share the same language, religion, and culture. So why this race-awareness, to use a less incendiary label? In Sweden the issue is hardly about racism. Those “others” are mostly fresh to this country. I’m just shy of 50. As young, there were no immigrants in my class, none in the entire school, and nobody in my district at all. 40 years later virtually all people in my district are recent immigrants from all corners of the world. Some 90% of colleges at work has a foreign name, and speak with coworkers and costumers in strange languages. Am I a racist, for feeling like a stranger in my own country now (in the words of a friend from Morocco,,,)? Anywhere in Sweden is the same. Foreign languages, foreign food, cars with foreign license plates, beggars lining the streets, exploding numbers of homeless people, increased crime rates, religious terrorist acts, and so on. The changes are going at a lightning speed. Will these newcomers be able to pick up enough sense, and carry on the heritage, or will I end my days in a nation turned to an Islamic dictatorship. I feel lonely and scared. Should I emigrate?

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