‘To be black doesn’t have to mean anything more than what I already am’Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Autobiography, Media Archive, United States on 2017-02-11 20:43Z by Steven |
‘To be black doesn’t have to mean anything more than what I already am’
The Philadelphia Inquirer
2016-02-06
Sofiya Ballin, Staff Writer
 Sonia Galiber, Director of Operations at Urban Creators Michael Bryant |
For Black History Month, we’re exploring history and identity through the lens of joy. Black joy is the ability to love and celebrate black people and culture, despite the world dictating otherwise. Black joy is liberation.
Sonia Galiber, 25, Director of Operations
Philly Urban Creators, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
My high school was pretty segregated. As a biracial kid, I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t black enough or Asian enough. That’s when I developed an inferiority complex.
Throughout all of this, I’m also dealing with needing to be Japanese enough. My mother’s family didn’t approve of my parents’ marriage. My grandparents got to know my dad, but there are some extended family members that I’m just meeting.
It was a motivating force for me. I went to Japanese school every Saturday from third grade to high school. That was an identity I was chasing in the same way that I was chasing blackness…
Read the entire article here.