Cultural Self-Degradation

I fucking hate kids who think they’re the shit because they don’t hang out with members of their own cultural community, as though hanging out with white kids and being the token asian/black/hispanic makes them cool by default. As though shame of not looking like the commercial American can be buried under a Jersey accent and Abercrombie shirts. As though their rejection of their own cultural background will help them integrate even better into the fabric of American society, ignorant of the fact that their background IS what makes them AMERICAN. As though ethnicity and identity is something you can dismiss and shed like a dirty, embarrassing outfit your parents dressed you up in and not the skin you wear for the rest of your life.

What makes me even more fucking angry is when they think that PARTAKING in the racial slurs and jokes that condemn and subjugate members of their own background- jokes based on ignorance they’re fully well aware of- will help them achieve solace in balancing two cultural identities. Or rather, the complete rejection of one through self-degradation. Well, it doesn’t. It makes you a fucking asshole and a real damn shame to the community and demographic you represent, whether you like it or not.
And what’s worst is, I know your family. I know your father and your mother and your little sisters, and they’re incredible and sweet and hope for the best for you, to see their son and brother to be a true asset to society and live a life they never could’ve achieved in their home country- a combination of their cultural values with the freedom and liberty of American society. They wanted the American dream for you.

I hope you know your self-degradation is what perpetuates racism in this country. Because if you won’t defend your own self-worth and identity, who will?