Being born in America with Indian parents has allowed me to live in different environments and learn how to balance my Indian heritage with my American heritage. I was brought up to be aware and understanding of others through my Indian heritage. Historically the caste system is a social hierarchy that divides Indian society into prescribed roles. However, this grew into a toxic class dividing system that resulted in economic disparities and inequalities. My caste is Lingayatism, which has been shunned historically for its belief that any individual can be in a higher caste and worship god in their own image. This has shaped me to believe that religion is a fundamental aspect of humanity; to bring inner peace but also bring order. My time and visits to India have helped shape this global perspective of empathy and respect for differing cultures and experiences. I was able to examine my privileges that I have as an American citizen and the advantages that exist with that title.

My time in America, especially in my small home town called Perry Hall has aided in my understanding of deeper seeds of division and equality in our society. Racial diversity wise my town is a predominantly white suburban lower to middle class environment. As an upper middle class member of the community living as a minority, I was able to see how my income and family’s educational status allowed me to explore opportunities that my counterparts in Perry Hall did not have. I was one of the few members of the community that went to University; many people went to community college because of financial reasons. As an Indian American living in this community, I was able to see double standards that existed in my community. I was upset that adults and students would not call me by my name ‘Ajáy’, but ‘Aj’. Furthermore, my more liberal leaning political views were met in opposition by the local community. Some members of my local community threatened me with violence and harassed my family during the 2016 election period. One incident that stood out the most to me was a fellow high school student who helped me become student body president in my high school, quickly did not want to be friends anymore. This slowly led to him always commenting on my political posts on Facebook; which at first was friendly dialogue but as the campaign got more turbulent, our dialogue soon just became endless debating and arguing. Unfortunately, this resulted in him privately messaging me threatening to fight me if he ever saw me in public. This scared me as I knew his family was very conservative but also held racist views and owned guns.

I was worried because although I do not live in Perry Hall during the semester, my family does. My mom especially is oblivious to these threats and the current racial environment so I panicked and threatened him that I would call the police if he ever decided to come to my house, or did anything to my family or myself. Luckily, after much back and forth dialoguing, he realized his error and apologized for his outburst. Nevertheless, this experience taught me the thin line that I stand on in my community: regardless if I am an American citizen, people will judge me based off of my skin color and my political views. I need to be able to correctly handle dialogues about these issues and be a responsible ethical citizen in my community to prevent violence.