So, while on the webchat with PZ et. al. earlier, a comic on The Nib came up. It’s titled “I Exist” and it’s by Breena Nuñez. In it she writes about her Blackness as an Afrosalvi (someone from African descent who grows up in El Salvador). The whole thing is quite interesting, and I enjoyed her self-portraits and her insights equally.
Please do go read it and tell me what you think.
OK, I checked it out.
I think the author defines themself by their blackness.
(Also, I really know stuff-all about El Salvador or Guatemala)
I think I’ve just learnt a lot about a country I knew very little about. Thankyou.
Must admit when I hear El Salvador about the first thing that comes to mind is the U2 song ‘Bullet the Blue Sky and even then I’m not sure how accurate if at all that is. Aussie typing here for whoem that’s a very obscure country.
PS. Also – great comic and respect to Breena Nuñez. More power to her.
I think it is an important message. Othering and unconscious bias are real things and they are not limited to white majority cultures. It reminds me that we need to do a better job of welcoming and nurturing children. It reminds me of a conversation I had comparing hair horrors with an African American friend. As a young girl – and this would have been early middle 80’s, every Sunday her mother would use an iron that she would heat on the stove to straighten her hair. She talked about occasionally being burnt. I reacted with horror and asked how she had felt about it. She just looked at me blankly and said she liked it because it meant that it was one less way that she was different. It reminds me of a recent conversation with a 24-year-old Latina with beautiful curly hair. She told me how in high school she straightened her hair because of social pressure from the other girls. Finally, it reminds me of a comment from a 1st grader who was so excited about an education video we produce because a puppet looked “just like her”.