Ashkenazi Jewish | Yemeni/Syrian/Uzbek
I am White and Yemeni/Uzbek/Levantine. My Mum (who is Jewish) raised me Jewish. I don’t know how I ‘identify’ myself. I think it is strange how there is a spotlight on gender and identity, but for race we are still expected to tick a box. Maybe I just identify as a human being.
My Mum is from England, she is Ashkenazi Jewish. Most of her heritage stems from Eastern Europe; Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. In the 80’s she emigrated to Israel which is where she met my Father. My Father was born in Israel, but he is an absolute melting pot of cultures. My Father is half Yemeni, a quarter Syrian and a quarter Uzbek. My parents divorced when I was young. My Mother tried her best to combine bits of my Middle Eastern heritage, but generally I was brought up English and Ashkenazi Jewish. Whilst my Mother was married to my Father she became very close with his family and learned how to make lots of traditional recipes from the region, some of which she still makes today. Notably Osh Plov, Iranian rice and Yemeni chicken soup!
Having another culture within me that is so different and exotic in comparison to my surroundings is fascinating within itself. I’ve embraced being ‘interesting’ more as I’ve gotten older, especially as I’m able to learn more new things about my heritage all the time and adopt new parts of the culture that I identify with.
At least weekly I am asked ‘so where are you really from’, my answer usually fascinates people. Most people see being mixed-race as being half Black and half White. Any discrimination is usually due to ignorance rather than my actual heritage. I’m what you’d call ‘racially ambiguous’ so I’ve even had racial slurs that aren’t even close to my genetic make-up. I’ve been called racial slurs relating to other ethnic minorities, and I’ve been told to go back to where I come from. When I went to the USA people largely thought I was Mexican. When people I know make racist comments, I sometimes wonder what they think about me behind my back.
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