The One About Cultures

Written by: Karen S.

Cover Design by: Zainab A.

This goes out to all my double agents balancing both their cultural identity and their "American" identity. Such diaspora we experience here, especially if you're bilingual. Trying to connect back is so hard because it goes down something like, “Mama, what's that word we use for 'onion'?” or you’ll mispronounce the words. It's also tough when I see you rolling your r’s as you go because when they laugh at that guy's joke you sure won't be saying what we know you said in English. Now it's really hard to find a kid who truly likes their culture enough to spread it around and not just wear polos and listen to whatever those kids are listening to now. It's hard especially being from a culture so harshly looked down upon… MENA (Middle Eastern North African). I mean the looks at the airports, or all the weird assumptions, “Did you ride a camel to school?”, or this one was a shocker, “Is Egypt in India?”

It was hard to connect with my own identity at first because I was so afraid of judgment even though our cultures are what make us different. I love when there’s a new MENA kid, or someone Orthodox, or Muslim - kinda like a kid at a candy store. After my first visit back home I realized how rich my ancestry was - it's studied in history books all over the world. Then, being MENA became a trend, and freeing Palestine, I found so many other MENA on TikTok who inspired me to be me. I may be the annoying Egypt-obsessed girl, but so be it. I love to represent my people who worked hard to get their name and flag. So to everyone - whether Latinx, MENA, Desi, etc. - being diverse is better than trying to fit in falsely. More and more of the MENA and Muslim community are starting to speak up on making a change in how they are viewed. It would be so amazing if all of Massachusetts just became the multicultural place it truly is.