‘Spy In The House Of Race’: A Daughter Of Black, Chinese, And Jewish Parents On Belonging Everywhere And NowherePosted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Autobiography, Media Archive, United States on 2021-08-01 22:28Z by Steven |
LAist
Southern California Public Radio
Pasadena, California
2021-05-14
 Lili Barsha, left, as a child with her parents, Tony and Yen, and younger brother Jake. (Courtesy of Lili Barsha) |
I’m an American of African, Asian, European, and Native descent.
I’ve lived all over the world and have been taken for many things. I describe myself as multi-racial, Mixed in America, blended. I tend to reject the hyphen — I see it as a little plank that walks us off our citizen ship. By us, I mean we people of color other than white. I have too many planks to walk as a Black, white, red, yellow — therefore, tan — American.
I’m nobody’s All-American, a spy in the house of race.
Ethnicity shapes what I eat, what music I listen to, what I read, and who I keep as company. It defines culture, family, history, and aesthetics.
I am the bloom of my ancestors. A vessel filled with genetic memory. That, and memories of otherness. Here are some of them…
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