Gracing this month’s cover and one of our FLM contributors, Ashley Abboushi shares her experiences growing up in a multicultural family.
I was brought up with a family from all parts of the world, with different cultures, languages, religions, etc. It was really great that we were taught to embrace all of it.
"I was always proud to be part Puerto Rican, Greek, Palestinian and English. I don't identify with one more than another, and being that they're all so different, it has really shaped my life in that I am an activist for human rights, because... well, we're all human beings before anything else."
"I've always had a hard time checking a box when asked to, because I am not just one thing. We celebrated Greek Easter, Catholic Easter, Christmas, and learned about Ramadan. We weren't forced into one religion, one way of thinking, or one way of life. We were taught that we're all different, and that that's ok. And we were taught that we should treat people how we want to be treated, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."
While Ashley’s experience illustrates the ideal, loving and honoring each identified race, there are still lingering racial tensions that some experience daily. One friend, who is an African American man that married a Caucasian woman shared his experience and concerns for his children:
"I recollect the difficult time my wife's dad gave me initially because I was black. He is a conservative republican who felt that interracial dating was not a good thing. His issue wasn’t just that I was dating his daughter, but the societal pressures our kids would have for being mixed. It took some time to win him over and sometimes I feel like I am still doing so. There is little to no diversity in my town. There is a real economic and social divide. Schools are segregated. Black folks go to district schools; the preferred neighbors are high real estate tax areas. There aren’t a lot of people that look like me, black, professional, within a certain (higher) salary bracket. So it is very hard to meet people of color down here. So I am afraid for my kids."
Photo by Alexandros Papanikolopoulos