It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m David
For those of you who I haven’t personally met yet, I’d like to share something interesting…
I have no race, no culture, and no ethnicity…
I realized pretty early in life this is a concept most don’t really understands because these 3 terms are so deeply ingrained in how most people identify themselves. This is something I rarely discuss, but since since the next chapter of my life is taking me around the world, I suppose it’s time to talk about it.
(and since only my Facebook friends with enough attention span to read long messages will stay long enough to read the juicy stuff, I figure this is a safe space)
The question “Where are you from?” comes up for me often, especially when I was working front-line retail. When I give my initial answer of, “I was born and raised here in Colorado” Every time I watch the look of disappointment and confusion in their eyes as they scan over my tan skin, square jaw, big lips, and wide-ish nose. I then see their brow scrunch as they try to think of a non-offensive way to re-ask the question to find the answer they were looking for… I’ve been doing this for like 20 years and I still laugh to myself every time… However, there is a reason I do it, and always will.
At a young age, I was aware my skin was different than the majority of my community, so back in elementary school I would answer saying I was a Martian, I thought it sounded cool. In middle school I realized the question made me uncomfortable, so I would avoid it by asking “what would you guess?” Then, interestingly, by high school, I discovered I learned a lot about another person once they told me their opinion after a thorough analysis of my face and body. Ever since, it’s a game I enjoy playing with myself and the unsuspecting question-asker. It’s also interesting to note that some get very angry when I never reveal the specific answer. (If anyone really needs it, I do have an answer I can give you in the comments, but you’re probably not gonna be happy with it…)
Tomorrow, I’ll go deep into my past and share something I’ve honestly never even discussed even with my friends as to why I grew up not talking about my race/ethnicity.
I’ve met a few people like me with tan skin here in the United States, who “aren’t allowed” to identify as white, yet don’t identify as any other culture or race that may be in their bloodline. What was neat with these relationships was there was never a need to have a conversation about it. It was always just a nice unspoken mutual understanding of “what we aren’t” as opposed to “what we are”. But those relationships have always been few and far between…
But now that I’m traveling more, I think this is going to be a topic of conversation that comes up often, but in a very unique way for me…
