KNOWING YOUR ROOTS, OWNING IT AND LIVING YOUR TRUE SELF. EASY RIGHT?

I wanted to write this article to really breakdown the misconceptions of the culture we are living in today. The type of culture that is sickening and bullying, where instead of bringing each other up we are bashing peoples experiences and labelling them as ‘toxic‘ or ‘cancelled‘. In my experience as someone who has grown up in a minority culture, bullied for looking ‘different’,’hairy’,’manly’ and ‘fat’. Writing has become a place of discovery for me, somewhere where I can really place all my experiences and share them with others who have experienced the same. With the help of my friends and really amazing, inspirational people I look up too such as Bjork (of course),Solange and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I have been able to create a space for myself not only digitally, but within my everyday, where I am able to well and truly live my life to my own accord, avoiding negativity and hatred at all costs. However I also do believe that as someone who wants to live the life in their own accord within today’s society that it is difficult to maintain. And what I mean here is those who want to put each and every person into there own box of ideals. We have to really educate ourselves and others into what it means to respect other cultures and identities. Let’s take this idea for example, one person who’s life has never been effected by racism and has never been singled out because of the way they look, what they eat and how they behave. How can one argue with someone who has had the heavy burden of institutional and societal racism and neglect even understand the struggle one has had to endure. Of course they cant. But there is a way to educate oneself of other peoples cultures and traditions. It isn’t hard to ask, “what really is Diwali?” or “why do you speak Arabic?” instead of displaying ignorance and hatred. As someone who has dealt with rude remarks and racism, it is actually a positive aspect to ask someone about their culture instead of assuming without any knowledge. You wont be ‘cancelled’ for not knowing, but you will be if you are promoting hate and ignorance. We need to step back and see that not everyone is disgusting human being, some people need education and do not need to be treated like they have done anything wrong, unless they have done the worse. It has been a journey for me and many other women to understand what it really means to be a part of a minority as well as a diaspora. And the world at this very moment in time is becoming a more dangerous place for women at the moment, with western ideals of what a women should be, wear, act and say, it is important to find a community and a voice and actually contribute to the culture and society that we call our homes. We need to support each other, no matter what your culture and identity is, education and understanding is the key to creating projects like these and conversations like these to open up a debate, and a system to progress for a better and diverse change. I hope you enjoyed this article. Although it is a brief one, I want to bring these ideas and debates into the platform as I want to see women artists, writers and creatives to share the interpretation of these concepts. If you want to submit an article about anything of your choice please email iveseenitalltania@gmail.com or contact at contact page!