What part of your identity is most important to you? (1 Viewer)

[litc]

Race/ethnicity + sort of cultural location.

I'm biracial (Black and white) and often joke that I'm ambiguously ethnic. Black folks look at me and say "black and what?", Latinos will assume I speak Spanish (not much) and I've had Pacific Islanders also assume I'm family too. The Black side of my family has always been much more involved in my life so I think I look at things against through a very strong lens of Black culture and history but with the strange skew you have as a biracial person particularly as you get older and understand more of what's happening and how your experience is something else - not completely the Black experience and not completely the white one either.

I also think a lot of my opinions and identity are shaped by where I live - not as an American but as a Californian. California is a very specific place where many cultures co-mingle - it's one of the most diverse places in the country so you have a combination of the very Western U.S. attitude of independence and innovation + an emphasis on nature/outdoors + the blend of Asian, Latino, Black, Native and many European cultures. CA has the highest population in the US of many groups: Latinos, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Thai, Indonesians and more. California is considered a "majority-minority" state so that very much shapes my world view. (That's not to say there aren't ignorant racist people here but it does make us a very unique place to live vs areas that are more homogenous. As I traveled the world more I realized that in many ways, we are the "melting pot" we all learned about in school - in other places, it feels like cultures are more rigidly separated by location, class or tradition IMO, if there are multi-cultural elements.) It's also ridiculously expensive to live here and half the people are transplants who just bitch all day about California.



I'm not trying to paint it as a utopia but I do notice when I go other places that I do still think a bit like a Californian - I'm not expecting avocado vegan toast when I go places but I am a bit shocked by a smoking car on a train or when I can go a whole day without seeing a different ethnicity or when I see a clerk being obviously racist to someone in a crowded coffee shop and no one says anything but me, who calls the manager over, then contacts corporate to complain about it.

wow california has the most asians and then there's latinos

but I understand, california identity, much less racism comparatively I'd assume