By bmnobles
I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and lived in the same house my whole life. I was born to an Italian mother, and a black and Apache Native American father. Until studying abroad I had never defined myself as American. I call myself multi-racial and in the past referred to myself as bi-racial. When my parents got divorced my black and Apache family disowned me, thus I consider myself to be culturally Italian. However, I am visibly a person of color.
My whole life has been an attempt at balancing all of my cultural and racial identities. For a while I didn’t claim my Apache tribe because in America to be Native American appears to be something of myth, and since I don’t interact with that part of my family I felt that I couldn’t “prove” my authenticity. I generally operate in society as a black woman. Being black is something that I can understand, something that I see visible and tangible examples of everyday, something that creates and facilitates experiences that I myself have experienced. But being multi-racial generally comes with a set of authenticity politics, which many people don’t recognize. We are often fetishized in popular American culture, but our struggles have not also been brought to the forefront of mainstream American consciousness. We constantly have to prove that we belong to each group that we are a part of, when in actuality being multi-racial is its own identity, and blackness, Italian-ness, and Apache-ness do not come with a set of guidelines, you don’t have to prove yourself. You are what you are, your mix is beautiful, and no one can take that away from you.
I actually transferred to GW from Howard University. Since I grew up with my Italian mother and white stepfamily, I thought that attending the HBCU would be a welcome shift in my journey of understanding my heritage. However, at Howard I found myself again trying to prove my authenticity, trying to prove that I was black enough. When I got to GW I was welcomed with open arms into the community of color. The black and Latino students at GW have created and maintained an empowering and healing home and love for its affinity students, and for that I could not be more grateful. At GW unfortunately I, and many of the other students of color do still experience racism, but I have also found safe space at GW. I feel that the university listens to us, and that steps are taken to institute change when we raise out concerns.
I am proud to be Italian. I am proud to be black. I am proud to be Apache. I am grateful to be a part of the black community at GW, to be embraced by the Latino community, and excited to get to know the Native community. We are all beautiful in our skin, in our performances of racial identity, in our academia, and our support for one another is astounding and revolutionary. I can say that for the first time in my life I have found a community that has truly started to feel like home.