For those whose parents are immigrants to the country you were born in (making you a second generation citizen), how connected do you feel to your cultural heritage and/or roots? Do you wish you knew/experienced more about your parents culture?

Mom is Palestinian, Dad is Egyptian, I was born in the U.S.

They didn't teach me or my sibling Arabic because they wanted us to fit in with white Americans (we lived in a very white area) and were scared of us getting bullied. As one can expect, that didn't work. Otherwise I grew up eating Egyptian & Palestinian food, and generally had very different expectations than the white kids around me.

I think I look pretty stereotypically Middle Eastern, so white people just see me as an "Arab", and people with Middle Eastern backgrounds also kind of recognize me.

They tried to get me into the Coptic community, and teach me some of the language when I was a bit older, but it was too late to be honest. Lots of internalized racism, and was also too young to realize there was any value in connecting with my roots (if anything, being bullied for it just made me dislike it more).

I think if I knew either Arabic or Coptic (moreso Arabic), things would be very different, but as of now I don't really fit anywhere. I'm definitely not white enough to just pass as white, and I'm also not that close to my parents' backgrounds either, so nobody really knows how to deal with me lol.

/r/AskWomen Thread