My name is Trayvon Smith, I’m 19 years old, and I am multi-ethnic. I was born and raised in San Francisco, CA with my mom, step father, grandmother, and two sisters. When meeting people for the first time, they often get the impression that I’m either Samoan or Caucasian. Most people would later find figure that I’m Black, but the don’t know my cultural background and its significance. I am Black, Chinese, and Native American, and Creole. When I tell people about my ethnic background they tell me that they don’t know what Creole is (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Creole_people), so I tell them about my family background.
I tell them that my great-great-grandmother was Native American and my great-great-grandfather was Black. I wish I knew their names, but my great-grandmother never spoke of their names. They lived in Shreveport, LA, but moved to Arcadia, LA and gave birth to my great-grandmother and her siblings. I have never met my great-grandma’s siblings because they were born in the late 1880’s-1890’s and passed away way before I was born. By them having my great-grandmother, that made her Native American and Black.
My great-grandmother, Ruth, was born on June 2nd, 1929 and raised in Arcadia, LA. She met a Creole and Chinese man named Jack Kilgore, married him, and adopted his last name. She gave birth to my grandmother, Ruthie Lee Kilgore, on March 11th, 1942, making Ruthie Native American, Black, Creole, and Chinese. They raised my grandmother in Louisiana until the age of 4. At this time in the South, there was racism going on, so they moved to San Francisco in search of a better life. My grandmother met a Creole man named Harry Bobineaux while visiting her father working at the old shipyards in Bayview Hunter’s point. Eventually, she had my mother, Joana Lee Bobineaux, who is Native American, Black, Creole, and Chinese.
My mother was born on September 5th, 1978 and raised in San Francisco in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood. She met my biological father Troy Smith when she was 17 and gave birth to me on July 10th, 1997, making me Native American, Black, Creole, and Chinese. I don’t really know who my father is, because my mom kicked him out of my life when I was 3. But I was raised in a household with my mother, stepfather and two sisters.
Most people wouldn’t know where I come from just off my looks. I identify as multi-ethnic because I’m exposed to four different cultures fused into the one culture that I live by. I know how to make some of my cultural dishes, such as various Chinese dishes, soul food, some Creole dishes, and different pastas. I try to be more culturally accepting to other cultures than what I’m normally exposed to and I want to become fluent in Spanish in order to be more in tune with my Creole roots.
-Trayvon Smith