On Race: Part One

"Oh, you must be halfbred." -An election official at Thursday’s SM location to me

It’s interesting being Asian in Mbarara and Kashongi. I don’t think there are many (although I’ve seen two in the past week--a record), and it can be doubly alienating to be (1) part of a large group of obvious foreigners and (2) different even from all of the other foreigners, since I’m the only Asian in the DE group this year. I don’t necessarily mind it or dislike it; it has just made me much more aware of my race, something I don’t even really have to think about at Duke or when I’m back home.

Many people seem baffled by the idea that I am American ("But where are you from?"), and we’ve had to assert several times, "Yes, yes... we are ALL from America!" (well, except for Sophie, who is actually Australian, but that’s beside the point). Personally, I didn’t expect such bewilderment. After all, I always thought that the United States was the ‘promised land,’ where people can emigrate to start a new life and pursue the American dream. So wouldn’t it make sense that people of different hair colors and skin tones could all consider themselves American?

Curiously, many people first ask me if I’m Korean (no) or Japanese (also no). I wasn’t sure why this was happening at first, especially since such a large portion of the world is Chinese that statistically, it seems like the best bet, right? But here’s my theory: Football is huge here. China does not have a major presence in global football, but Korea and Japan do. This could be totally off the mark, but hey, it’s a guess.