#4270: In light of all the recent posts regarding minority groups, I thought Id share my story. I have never thought of myself as a minority, being Cuban in Miami I was definitely part of the majority. However, Ive clung to my American citizenship more so than I have to my Cuban heritage. Dont get me wrong, I love who I am and where I come from, but the US will always come first to me, and the US will always be home. Now what exactly does this have to do with anything? As I circled McDonough field looking for clubs that interested me, I spotted the Latino Student Organizations table and walked up to it. Before I could even introduce myself or signup for the club I was asked Where are you from?, naturally I responded with Miami my hometown, the place Ive lived my entire life, the place that took my family in when they fled from a government they disagreed with to put it mildly. Miami was clearly not the response the LSO members were looking for since they followed up with No, where is your family from? a simple question that, in and of itself, is normal. What threw me off was what happened after I responded. When they heard the word Cuba their demeanor changed completely. I went from having the attention of one person to having half of the tables attention. They suddenly looked very interested in what I had to say and all began telling me about the great opportunities their club provides, in the same way all clubs had done that day. Ok... so whats the issue here? Saying where my family is from felt like saying a password to get into a secret club. My American citizenship was not important to them, only my heritage. It should only matter that I was interested in joining the club regardless of my ethnicity. Were supposed to be all about diversity at Emory, not all about creating divisions between students that keep people of certain ethnicities lumped together and almost separate from other ethnicities.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 00:36:25 +0000
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