When two become one
Earlier this week, we had a floor meeting to eat cookies/fill out the end of the year survey about dorm satisfaction. As we're sitting there coloring in the appropriate little scantron bubbles, Karen tapped me on the shoulder and asked me an interesting question:
"What bubble do you usually fill in when they ask for your race and ethnicity?"
Karen, being half hispanic and half white, said she normally bubbles the "Hispanic" bubble.
I told her I bubble in either "Caucasian", "Native American", or "Mixed", depending on my mood and what form I'm filling out.
It's interesting. I rarely ever think about my mixed ethnicity, I guess because I always forget that I'm not 100% white.
If you want to get technical about it, most of my ancestry is of European descent, which would place me in the Caucasian category. The Yamshon side is a mixture of German, Polish, Hungarian, and possibly other Eastern European descent. My father is a full-blooded Jew, and Simone and I were raised in a reformed Jewish household. We never kept a Kosher home, but we were given Hebrew names at the traditional baby naming ceremony, attended synagogue fairly regularly, went to religious school three times a week, held Shabbat dinner almost every Friday, learned Hebrew, became Bat Mitzvot, and celebrated all of the holidays and did all of the Jewish customs. Apart from the whole jealousy of Christmas thing that most Jewish children go through, I always felt a really strong tie to Judaism and have never really questioned my beliefs. I never felt forced into my religion - my parents were always very relaxed and welcomed the idea of other religions and ways of life into our home. They told me from a very young age that after I reached the age of Bat Mitzvah, it was up to me whether or not I wanted to continue practicing Judaism. To me, Judaism has always just made sense. Apart from a few old testament sayings, I agree with Jewish ideology and have found it a good fit to my lifestyle and personal beliefs.
The thought of converting or dropping religion from my life has never crossed my mind - I love being Jewish and identify strongly to that part of my history. Many of my family members perished during the Holocaust, and I am proud to continue the traditions that they suffered for. It is a constant reminder of the need for racial and religious tolerance... and, dare I say, shalom ba-olam - peace for the world. Genocide is of course not limited to the Holocaust - there have been many other racial mass-murders in regions all over the world, and some still continue today. I pray that these conflicts get resolved quickly, but I know there is still a long way to go.
Well, what about my other side, my other heritage?
From the Harkness side, I am English, French, Scottish, and two different tribes of Native American. My great-grandmother was a full-blooded Chippewa indian, but felt socially pressured to assimilate to white culture. Being Native American in a time where white settlement was booming was difficult, for many tribes were forced out of their land or onto preservations. My great-grandmother wanted to make a better life for herself, so she married a white man and had three children with him (one of them being my grandmother). My Grammy married my grandfather, who has a great amount of Seminole indian blood. This Chippewa-Seminole-European combo was then passed on to my mom and her brothers, and then of course to me as well. Looking at my mom and Simone, who are both blond hair blue/green eyed gals, you'd probably never expect our Native American descent. But if you look at uncle and my cousin Alex, its painfully obvious.
It's hard to say exactly what percentage of my lineage is Native American, but its enough to have me legally able to check off the "Native American" box if I so choose.
When I was little, I thought being Native American was one of the coolest things in the world. When we had heritage days at school, I always did Chippewa projects (and yes, the other kids in my class sometimes piped in with "but I thought you were Jewish?") and I loved 4th grade because that was when we learned about California history and the various Native American tribes. At our old house, before Simone was born, we had what my mom called the "crystal room" which was full of healing crystals and all of our Native American stuff on display: garments, artifacts and artwork from our tribes. My dad lovingly refers to us as "his Chippewa girls" and whenever I express my love for traveling, nature and outdoor adventures, he smiles and says "It's in your blood."
I like my mixed-blood, my mutt status. I like having two really distinct cultures to call my own. When a girl in my reporting class asked me what my nationality was, I liked being able to respond with my answer, and liked hearing her response of "I could tell there was something interesting in there." I like speaking Hebrew and celebrating Jewish holidays, and also liked it when I was the only one out of 300 students to raise my hand when my Foundations of Journalism prof asked if there were any Native Americans in the class. I like that in my kitchen at home, you can see an authentic dream-catcher next to a mounted hamsa.
But I don't like having to label myself within the confines of race/ethnicity scantron bubbles. Are they really necessary?
Love from your moccasin-wearing/Torah reading friend,
xo Leah
"What bubble do you usually fill in when they ask for your race and ethnicity?"
Karen, being half hispanic and half white, said she normally bubbles the "Hispanic" bubble.
I told her I bubble in either "Caucasian", "Native American", or "Mixed", depending on my mood and what form I'm filling out.
It's interesting. I rarely ever think about my mixed ethnicity, I guess because I always forget that I'm not 100% white.
If you want to get technical about it, most of my ancestry is of European descent, which would place me in the Caucasian category. The Yamshon side is a mixture of German, Polish, Hungarian, and possibly other Eastern European descent. My father is a full-blooded Jew, and Simone and I were raised in a reformed Jewish household. We never kept a Kosher home, but we were given Hebrew names at the traditional baby naming ceremony, attended synagogue fairly regularly, went to religious school three times a week, held Shabbat dinner almost every Friday, learned Hebrew, became Bat Mitzvot, and celebrated all of the holidays and did all of the Jewish customs. Apart from the whole jealousy of Christmas thing that most Jewish children go through, I always felt a really strong tie to Judaism and have never really questioned my beliefs. I never felt forced into my religion - my parents were always very relaxed and welcomed the idea of other religions and ways of life into our home. They told me from a very young age that after I reached the age of Bat Mitzvah, it was up to me whether or not I wanted to continue practicing Judaism. To me, Judaism has always just made sense. Apart from a few old testament sayings, I agree with Jewish ideology and have found it a good fit to my lifestyle and personal beliefs.
The thought of converting or dropping religion from my life has never crossed my mind - I love being Jewish and identify strongly to that part of my history. Many of my family members perished during the Holocaust, and I am proud to continue the traditions that they suffered for. It is a constant reminder of the need for racial and religious tolerance... and, dare I say, shalom ba-olam - peace for the world. Genocide is of course not limited to the Holocaust - there have been many other racial mass-murders in regions all over the world, and some still continue today. I pray that these conflicts get resolved quickly, but I know there is still a long way to go.
Well, what about my other side, my other heritage?
From the Harkness side, I am English, French, Scottish, and two different tribes of Native American. My great-grandmother was a full-blooded Chippewa indian, but felt socially pressured to assimilate to white culture. Being Native American in a time where white settlement was booming was difficult, for many tribes were forced out of their land or onto preservations. My great-grandmother wanted to make a better life for herself, so she married a white man and had three children with him (one of them being my grandmother). My Grammy married my grandfather, who has a great amount of Seminole indian blood. This Chippewa-Seminole-European combo was then passed on to my mom and her brothers, and then of course to me as well. Looking at my mom and Simone, who are both blond hair blue/green eyed gals, you'd probably never expect our Native American descent. But if you look at uncle and my cousin Alex, its painfully obvious.
It's hard to say exactly what percentage of my lineage is Native American, but its enough to have me legally able to check off the "Native American" box if I so choose.
When I was little, I thought being Native American was one of the coolest things in the world. When we had heritage days at school, I always did Chippewa projects (and yes, the other kids in my class sometimes piped in with "but I thought you were Jewish?") and I loved 4th grade because that was when we learned about California history and the various Native American tribes. At our old house, before Simone was born, we had what my mom called the "crystal room" which was full of healing crystals and all of our Native American stuff on display: garments, artifacts and artwork from our tribes. My dad lovingly refers to us as "his Chippewa girls" and whenever I express my love for traveling, nature and outdoor adventures, he smiles and says "It's in your blood."
I like my mixed-blood, my mutt status. I like having two really distinct cultures to call my own. When a girl in my reporting class asked me what my nationality was, I liked being able to respond with my answer, and liked hearing her response of "I could tell there was something interesting in there." I like speaking Hebrew and celebrating Jewish holidays, and also liked it when I was the only one out of 300 students to raise my hand when my Foundations of Journalism prof asked if there were any Native Americans in the class. I like that in my kitchen at home, you can see an authentic dream-catcher next to a mounted hamsa.
But I don't like having to label myself within the confines of race/ethnicity scantron bubbles. Are they really necessary?
Love from your moccasin-wearing/Torah reading friend,
xo Leah