Coming from a predominately rich, white suburb, and not being rich and white has been an interesting experience. While there is a lot more diversity within my community compared to many others, there is still a lot of hostility. The divide between white and every other race is very prevalent; as it is in many places throughout America. I never really got to know the people that surrounded me until I started working at the local Jewel-Osco. This job not only consisted of cleaning dirty bathrooms and pushing carts that were ten times my size, but I also encountered some of the most ignorant people that I lived among. I eventually lost count of the amount of times that people asked where I was from or started the conversation with some Hindi word that I didn’t know. The surprising part was that it wasn’t only older, white people that made such assumptions, it was also many Indian people. I was offended that even though I was born in America, had lived in Naperville most of my life, went to school in America, and saw myself as an American, people were still only looking at what I represented on the outside.

Although I am a proud American, I am not ashamed of my Indian ethnicity. I make the long journey across countries to visit my Indian relatives every 3 years. I love being on Indian soil and spending time with the other half of my family. America and India are almost as opposite as it gets, yet, I equally enjoy being in both places. Being in India, I get to experience a simpler and less stressful life. I am completely cut off from technology, and all my attention is focused on being with my family. The short time that I spend there is devoted to eating good food, bonding with my family, and finding an AC to keep me from the 110 degree weather. As I weave through tiny dirt streets on the back of my cousins moped, I feel the comfort of being surrounded by people with the same skin color as I. But the comfort doesn’t last long. The second I open my mouth, I become a foreigner. My accent, my clothes, and even the way I carry myself, somehow make me “too Americanized”.

The answer to this question is not as simple as I originally believed. While my Indian culture influences a lot of my values and beliefs, the American culture that I have been brought up into also attributes for my personality and views. Although, technically, I am America, since I was born and raised here, but I also consider myself Indian, since I resonate with a lot of core Indian ideals. Both of these cultures make me who I am, so I guess there is not a single way to answer this question because I perceive myself as both both Indian and American.