I am half Pakistani and half dutch born and raised in the UK. My daughter is half Pakistani one quarter English and one quarter Dutch, my step daughter is half Danish and half Turkish.
I always get mistaken for a southern European, Turkish or an American Latino. When abroad in these countries I always get spoken to in the local language first, once I reply in my English accent they apologies and tell me they thought I was a local. When in Florid the hotel staff would talk to me in Spanish.
I would honestly feel 100x more comfortable identifying with Eurasian instead of European or Asian or White but the few times I’ve actually identified myself with that term, I fell under so much scrutiny from East Asians and Europeans and Americans. That eventually I just stopped having to explain myself while pulling out a map and a history textbook of Central and Western Asia.
So I settle for Russian, or Jewish, or a Slavic Jew but that seriously ignores my:
1) Birthplace (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
2) Tatar grandmother
3) Persian great great great grandfather
4) Cossacks from my mother’s grandmother side
But I don’t know, I’m 23 now. So I can say fuck off you don’t get to decide my racial identity.
But I just want to talk to SOMEBODY who feels the same way that I do. Who is in the same situation as I am. I’m not half European and I’m not half Asian but yes I am but I’m also not but whichever one I pick, I erase a certain part of my heritage and culture.
By, question, I don’t mean like “oh what country is that?” or “Oh! That’s so neat! Can you tell me more about Uzbekistan?” I mean like:
• Well, you’re not Asian or European enough, so you can’t call yourself Asian or European.
• But Eurasia doesn’t exist?? You’re making that up
• You have to pick one, you can’t be both (then I pick one) but you can’t be that because of X,Y, and Z
• You’re lying. Can I see your birth certificate?
• Not to be offensive…But you’re American sweety~~
So I made a decision, as I spent the last 9 hours on the road. I’ll call myself and identify myself as Eurasian and…screw anyone who tells me otherwise.
Read a history book. Look at a map. Learn geography. I don’t care.
I’m tired of people erasing my identities or picking which part to magically forget. I’m tired of racists who get wide eyed when I say I have a Muslim grandmother and was born in a Muslim country; and, because I am Jewish I just automatically hate Muslims. I’m tired of Asians and Europeans and Americans completely and utterly forgetting about Central Asia. I’m tired of RUSSIANS forgetting that there is a whole other part of Russia who are Russian!
I honestly feel like people from Maghreb face something similar to Central Asians and other people from Eurasia.
