Shoutout to all the immigrant kids who grew up ashamed of their culture and place of origin.
That had to yell over substitute teachers who would inevitably mispronunce their name and embarrass them in front of their peers. That are constantly told to go back to their country. That lied about where they came from. That had to coin nicknames for themselves, because their name was too foreign for the common American tongue. That had to laugh along to xenophobic jokes because of their desperation to make friends and fit in. Whose parents’ accent humiliated them beyond belief and they became the butt of everyone’s offensive jokes.
I used to be there and it took me a really long time to work out my internalized ethnocentricity. One day, if you haven’t yet, you will come to realize how beautiful your heritage is and bear its name proudly.
this is making me cry because this was actually a big part of my childhood, and i wish it weren’t. my parents legally changed their first names for identification cards when they first moved to canada. i didn’t understand why they did that until i got older.
(Source: maarnayeri)
