I’m a Black and Jewish Woman. My Identity Matters.Posted in Articles, Autobiography, Identity Development/Psychology, Judaism, Media Archive, Religion on 2020-06-06 02:21Z by Steven |
I’m a Black and Jewish Woman. My Identity Matters.
Kveller
2020-06-04
“What are you?”
I have been asked this question on way too many occasions: in private, in public, by strangers, by people I was acquainted with, and by many who should have known better. Singled out, put on the spot.
What am I? Hmm… I’m a woman, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a friend, a lover of beautiful things, a designer, the list goes on. I’m human — at least that’s what I so naively assumed. Our single race has been divided up into category upon subcategory, and this world forces you into just a single, specific, and limiting box.
But what does one do when you sit on the fence between two vast divides?
I’m the daughter of a Jewish (white) mother and a Guyanese (Black) father. My story was split from the very start. However, it really is so much more complex than that. I was raised Jewish, running the gamut from Reform/Conservative all the way through to sectors of ultra-Orthodoxy. My story has evolved along the way. One thing remained constant, though: more boxes, more labels, not all of them choices…
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