Being Indian makes me culturally knowledgeable

I am Indian, born and raised in India. I see myself as an asset to the American community
because I bring in culture that is new and unknown to many around me.

I am mostly comfortable with making American friends by that I mean people who grew up in
the united states regardless of their race. I am also very friendly towards people from different
countries, and I like to guide them through American culture because I have experienced what
it’s like to a foreigner in America and how to adapt to the culture. I used to have a thick Indian
accent before I moved to states at age 17 and then I lost my accent and now it feels like I grew up
here. Others see me as a friendly person who likes to socialize. I am very talkative and social.

Others see me as a daughter of Indian Immigrants. but they are misled. I am an Indian
Immigrant. I do acknowledge that people see me as an Indian. Others also guess my identity
based on skin colors, how my eyes are spaced, how I look, what I wear. Some things might not
tell my identity very easily, but other things might like my skin color. I have medium to dark
brown skin color which makes me brown. Brown people are either south Asian or Hispanic. I
don’t have Spanish or near Spanish accent so that crosses out the fact that I might be Hispanic,
also I don’t look Hispanic except we share the same skin color. Then there’s a few races left for
people to guess where I belong that is Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and SriLankan. Mostly
people guess that I am Indian because India has a much bigger population amongst other South
Asian countries.

I first used to be ashamed of ethnicity. I couldn’t see myself fit it well with other folks who
belonged to a different ethnicity than me (I mostly mean Caucasian people). Then later when I
got more involved in activities related to Indian culture, I started appreciating my identity more
and more. I come from an ethnically and racial homogenous country where 99% of the
population is Indian. However, there are differences in people from different states as they speak
different languages. Whereas, United states is different in many aspects, it is both racially diverse
and ethnically diverse. Race of a person is usually based on the color of their skin and ancestry
whereas ethnicity is based on shared cultural and regional experiences. I have come up to
identify myself as a Hindi-Jew because firstly I was raised as a Hindu then I fell in love with
Jewish cultural, religion and traditional values. However, when people look at me, they straight
away think that I am a Hindu or Muslim based on South Asian race. I don’t really practice a
religion, but I have had enough experiences with both religions and cultures to make me feel
connected to it.

When I say that I am culturally knowledgeable I don’t mean to deny that people who are
Americans aren’t culturally knowledgeable. I mean that I know more about different worlds, I
understand the American environment and I also understand Indian cultural, I have background
in diverse cultures. Knowing about different worlds in helpful because when you travel abroad
you don’t have act as foreigner you can get submerged into the new culture and act as local. I am
also proud of the fact that I speak three different languages and can understand a few more
languages which is not a given thing for most people in America. English tends to dominate the
world leaving other languages behind. You can learn other languages, but it is not as strong as
English, and people probably would end up just being a teacher of that foreign language instead
of having a higher level profession. English is also a language that unites people around the
world which is one of the reasons why United states dominates the world. I have had
opportunities to share my culture in the form dance, music and language with other people and it
makes me value my culture even more. I can write two different scripts of written language, and
I have shared that with people before.

I am on a pre-medical track which makes it very obvious for people to judge me based on my
ethnicity because there are a lot of Indian doctors in United States. It kind of makes me proud
that many people from ethnicity are highly educated and have high-level professions. But then
there’s a disadvantage, people expect a lot from you because of your ethnicity and it is expected
by many parents that their kids have high-level jobs. There’s a higher competition between Asian
students in academics compared to people from different races. The high competition puts a lot
of pressure to do good in school and have high-level jobs which might affect mental wellbeing of
students. It is better to know what one’s limits are and learn how to approach when one is being
pushed far beyond their limits.

There’s a policy in America in schools that we should treat everyone equally regardless of their
race and color. However, there are some caveats to this policy because people who come
marginally disadvantaged backgrounds do not get an opportunity to perform better in schools. In
my thought we should consider race and acknowledge that people who come from marginally
disadvantaged communities and give them an opportunity to show up but at the same time it
shouldn’t disadvantage other races. There should be a good middle ground where everyone gets
an opportunity at the same not putting anyone at a disadvantage.

My racial identity is part of who I am because it reflects the background I grew up in, how I
adapted to the common American community. However, I feel out of place in my own
community, and I get along well with white folks instead of Indian folks. I might be Indian but
the community I am surrounded with is mostly with white Americans. I also think that racial
identity is not a choice but the culture I surround myself is a choice. For example, I play ultimate
frisbee which is mainly a sport dominated by white folks and I feel really connected to people in
the sport. I choose to be part of that community and be around that culture. Sometimes being
from a different culture could be a constraint because you might have trouble understanding
context of certain cultural things. If I am surrounded by Jewish Americans, I couldn’t know what
a Challah is, and it might make me feel out of place but then I can relate it to something from my
culture once I know what Challah is and it would make me feel like an asset because I am
sharing something new with people. So, in conclusion there are constraints and assets of being
from any cultural identity.

But some races have more advantage in the society than others. It’s easier to be Asian or White in
America because those races succeeded well due to the advantages they had. Whereas being
Hispanic or Black has disadvantages because these are oppressed communities in America, and
they need an opportunity given just to them to perform better. If we always look at color and
treat people based on their color in a positive way could also be a disadvantage. For example, in
a math classroom there’s a black student who performs at an average level but the teacher
considering he’s black gives him extra support whereas an Asian student really struggles with
math, but the teacher does not provide her with extra support considering she’s Asian because
Asian tend to perform better in school. So, we can’t really differentiate people based on their
color because every single individual different and they perform differently in school or work.
From this example of race, I would say the race/ethnicity is important to consider but it should
come second, first comes the fact that we all are human beings, and he deserve to treated equally
no matter where we come from. Then comes race and ethnicity and that’s when we’ll consider
who should be given more attention based on their needs and how have their people been
oppressed or succeeded in the past. The goal of giving extra attention to people who comes from
a race that has been oppressed in the past is not discriminate against them but to give them to
chance to rise in the society as an asset instead of being a liability.

A good utopian world is where everyone is happy it does not need to be an equal world. If black
people had blue collar jobs instead of white-collar jobs but they were satisfied with their work,
then they are contributing to the society as an asset but if black people were homeless and had no
job then they are a liability to the world. What we need is society where everyone is an asset no
matter what kind of work they do. Schools are an institution to push and encourage people to be
an asset to the society which might involve giving extra support to people from certain races. We
need good culturally and literary educated people in this modern world.