ethnic study

“Go back to where you started, or as far back as you can,
examine all of it, travel your road again and tell the truth about it.
Sing or shout or testify or keep it to yourself: but know whence you came.”

When I decided to travel to Kenya, I centered my documentary for Global Storytelling for Global Development around understanding the beauty of the Maasai culture. I couldn’t have been more excited about spending time with the people and learning about their traditions, rituals and daily life.

“I remember when you told black Latinas that they were black and they would want to fight you,” says Keka Araújo, as we discuss the recently fashionable topic of being Afro-Latina. “Some people want to make me biracial. I am not biracial; I am bicultural,” she continues. “I am unapologetically black.”

An estimated five percent of the U.S. population grew up in a military family, but there is not one television show dedicated to its subculture. There are no academic studies or museums focusing solely on military children. There is no Military B.R.A.T. or TCK section in your local library.

I attended journalism school and used my free time to write articles. I got one column, and later, a second one. Today, I’m amazed I didn’t quit sooner, but at 23, I was convinced I was on the right track. I won prizes and became newcomer of the year, so I ignored the fact that I wasn’t really happy. I didn’t have time to think about it, either.

As people, we’ve developed a psychological preset to categorize individuals based on linguistic pronunciation. We can easily determine a person’s origin by the way they speak a common language. But what happens when we have the mingling of multiple cultures over a period of time?

Today, as we observe the tensest interactions between the United States and its allies in years and as globalization takes root deeper in the world, interacting with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds has become more common for most, especially for Americans. Considering U.S. history and policies over the past 250 years, we see a vacillation of how other cultures have been met by Americans.

Two CCKs capture and share their extraordinary global journeys on film. Alex Harz’s Story In part one of Fear, Faith and Film, I spoke of introducing two filmmakers whose stories were more alike than people may initially think. Augusto Valverde’s […]