Rachel Butler,
Japan.

I’m from Virginia, from a primarily white town. I went to a pretty white high school, but had a mixed group of friends all the same. I went to the University of Nebraska, which isn’t known for any great ethnic diversity, but it was welcoming to all. I was a collegiate track and field athlete and therefore tended to be surrounded by a mixture of races, which always seemed completely natural to me. Then, a little over a year ago, I came to Japan.
Never before had I stood out so much. Not even in high school when I had flaming red hair! I couldn’t (and still can’t) go to the supermarket without someone commenting on the size of my face (it’s small), the length of my legs (they are long), or the whiteness of my skin (I’m pasty). It was the strangest feeling to be so noticed.

When I went back to the US to visit my family, I was almost disappointed because I was just “regular” again. At the same time, I realized that I always sort of looked at other people in the US as American. I think perhaps most of us do. Because it’s such a diverse country, I think we usually assume a few things when we see first someone, even if they look a lot different from ourselves: 1) They speak English, 2) they have lived in the US forever and 3) probably so did their grandparents. I actually feel like these are complimentary assumptions because they decrease the barriers between us. In Japan, it’s generally assumed that anyone who doesn’t look Japanese probably can’t speak Japanese, thus throwing up a barrier before even speaking to the person. It will probably always be impossible for me to blend in, even if I want to.
I like that it’s hard to put a single face on “American.” We’re lots of colors, lots of sizes, and speak lots of languages. Any face can be American, and that’s something of which we should be proud.