Cuban | Italian
My Father went to live in Cuba for a pretty long amount of time in the late 80s/early 90s. My Mum told me they had never seen a Black woman before in the small town I come from in Italy and many people were afraid of her in the early 90s when she moved there.
I definitely feel more Cuban than Italian! It was pretty tough because the place I come from often treated me with hostility growing up, even though it's getting better with time. One thing I liked about Italy is how there can be much solidarity among foreigners/people with foreign backgrounds. It felt like a really welcoming community.
It's hard to feel like you belong where you were born if many people make you conscious or unconscious feel like you don't. I remember police pulling over me and my friends and asking for our documents on a weekly basis as a teenager as an example. People being afraid to walk close to me at night time, elderly ladies holding their purses tight when I would walk close to them in public transport, a bus driver once didn't let us hop on without a reason, and a thousand other examples of discrimination I may not want to remember.
But despite this don't let discrimination isolate you from society, in all races there are good and bad people. Sometimes some people can be unconsciously racist even though they didn't mean it, it's important to let them know how we feel and confront them about it so they can learn from their mistakes and improve themselves.
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