When you are in the public eye as a person of color, you are given very little room to mess up.
Yara ShahidiRead
My mama is African American and from Wisconsin. My baba was born in Iran. My parents have stressed the idea of creating your own path, and creating your own identity is part of that. That's why embracing these two cultures is important to me.
Interpretation
Embracing multiple cultures helps shape one's identity and fosters individuality.
This quote by Yara Shahidi highlights the importance of cultural heritage and individuality. It reflects her experiences of growing up in a multicultural environment and emphasizes that creating one's own path involves recognizing and valuing different aspects of one's background. By embracing both her African American and Iranian heritage, Shahidi illustrates how diverse influences can contribute to a strong sense of identity.
In practice
In a speech about diversity at a school event.
When you are in the public eye as a person of color, you are given very little room to mess up.
I always assumed that my otherness was a curse - that I would be held back by my Asian and queer identities.
I've often felt like an outsider, not necessarily because I'm Korean, an immigrant, or female. I think writers are odd people.
I was always a little unsteady in my self-belief. Then there was the Jewish thing. I love being Jewish, I have no problem with it at all. But it did become like a scar, with all these people saying you don't look it.
I'm not British. I'm not American. I'm not French. Whatever thing they practise, that is their business. I am an African. I am Rwandese.
I would rather be a member of this [Afrikan] race than a Greek in the time of Alexander, a Roman in the Augustan period, or Anglo-Saxon in the nineteenth century.
Part of me always felt like the other, the outsider, the observer. My father had two sons with his second wife, who I didn't meet until my late 20s. I was always on the periphery. In Madrid, I was the only Turk in a very international school, so I had to start thinking about identity. All these things affected me.
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