If you see me, it’s obvious my skin color is brown. If you see me, it’s obvious I come from a different background. If you see me, what you may think is obvious about me is probably not so obvious. There have been numerous instances in my life where people mistook me for someone else. They looked at me for someone who I was not. That is only because assumed about me solely based off my skin color.
1. I’m Indian.
You probably won’t say my skin color is brown because you’ll say it’s Indian. I was once at recess in elementary school and a friendly girl came up to my sister and I and asked if we were twins. I told her we are twins thinking she wanted to be friends with us. As soon as I told her my name she responded “Oh you’re Indian…never mind,” and shooed us away. I didn’t think anything of that situation but as I grew up I was still able to remember that short ten seconds of my life, and then realized what it was all about.
Growing up, people always asked me if I was Indian. Seriously, not every brown person you meet is Indian. Not every Indian you meet puts a red dot on their forehead. I am from Pakistan. India and Pakistan are different. I used to get a little mad when people called me Indian, but I think it’s okay if people ask that because it’s not like they’re meaning to offend me in any way (or so I think).
2. I’m Middle Eastern.
When I tell you that I’m from Pakistan, your mind quickly turns to the Middle East. This is because well, the Taliban are from Pakistan and people try to associate that region with terrorism. So I must be a terrorist. If you look at the map, Pakistan is actually in Southeast Asia. It is not part of the Middle East, therefore, I’m not Middle Eastern, I don’t speak Arabic, and I’m not a terrorist. Neither are those who are actually from the Middle East.
3. I’m Muslim
Nobody thought I was Muslim when I was in junior high or high school because of my darker complexion. By asking me if I was Indian, they were really asking me if I was Hindu. Things have changed and now more brown people are falsely looked at as Muslims. I am Muslim, but other brown people you see, especially those with turbans, may not be Muslim.
4. I’m smart.
On a piece of paper I would trace my hand along with my class mates for an activity that allowed everyone to write comments about each other. And guess what? Every single comment, on my piece of paper no matter what year it was, was always “You’re nice and smart”, “You’re really smart” or “I don’t really know you but you seem smart.” I was just always confused because I never saw myself as a smart person.
But in all honestly, just because I’m brown, I’m not automatically smart. I don’t always do my homework, I don’t always read and I don’t always get As. Just because I was a little smart, I was expected to be in honors and advanced classes that I never thought were for me. I was expected to be in National Honor Society (NHS) or be in the top ten percent or get a really high ACT score. I was so scared to tell people that I wasn’t part of NHS, I wasn’t in the top ten percent and I didn’t want to tell people my ACT score. There was so much pressure on me to be a smart person they thought I was but in reality I was never actually that smart.
5. I'm a bookworm.
Since people thought I was smart and since I was always that one quiet kid, people automatically thought that I liked reading books. This always tripped up people in Two Truths and A Lie. Yea, I don’t like reading. I’ve never read "Twilight," I’ve never ready "Harry Potter" and no matter how many people told me to read this, I’ve never read "The Hunger Games" either. I wish I read books, but unfortunately I don’t.
6. I smell………....good.
It’s crazy to think that someone’s skin color is associated with their odor. Please stop saying that brown people smell. Yes, we do eat curry, yes, we eat many spices and that’s probably why some people give off an unusual stench. It may smell in my house when my mom’s cooking but please understand that you are making fun of the food, not me. I do not smell. I eat a variety of foods, not only Pakistani or Indian foods. I invite you to come near me and tell me I smell bad. I assure you, if you leave my house, you won’t smell bad. If I smell one day, it won’t be because I’m brown.
