I love my university. It is so diverse, I am learning so much about people, and expanding my interests and knowledge. However, this sudden immersion into a colorful society has created quite a bit of culture shock. In Atlanta,I was just black, no one ever looked at me and thought to ask, what are you, and if they did, my response would be, "umm... a person?".

However here, the question is extremely normal and for a minute I was beginning to feel inadequate in a world of profound diversity. Is it appropriate for me to identify with African culture? It sounds silly but, can I even wear a Dashiki, and what is Jollof? After allI know nothing about African culture, and nor does my family. I only know that it is within me due to my skin pigmentation.

And people here find that so hard to understand, "So like your family didn't keep up with their culture?" But I no longer get offended, rather I explain that the slave trade split up families for this exact reason, so that we would have no cultural identity, or familiarity. So when they ask "What are you" and I say "Black", and they further press, "So where is your family from", and I say, "Georgia", and they look confused and disgusted, I smile and say, "Yep I'm just black".

It isn't my fault that my ancestor had to be brought over to America, so why don't you like me? And now our skin color is not enough to provide a common connection, because we view this country in two separate lenses. So how do I go on in the world not knowing who I am, where I came from, what my culture is. Historically I’m a negro, just as my father’s birth certificate states. I like so many others am an ethnicity so undefined that I cannot name a country, just simply link myself to the entire continent of Africa.