The Beauty of Multiculturalism

In a country as diverse as the United States, it’s expected that you will find friends who come from many different countries, regions, and experiences. Of course, there is a broad level of multiculturalism that exists in institutions, politics and other more serious environments. But multiculturalism, especially amongst second-generation immigrants, has evolved into a beautiful way to share and exchange interests, and build an ever-growing community that doesn’t stratify by ethnicity or race and rather sees one groups’ experiences as a burden that the rest must share.

For myself, there have been many conversations I’ve been apart of where my culture was discussed (whether this is regarding music, food, or hobbies) and there were only two outcomes: either my culture was looked down upon and judged, or it was fetishized. On the one hand, the judgment stung and made me feel like I was somehow beneath those people. On the other hand, fetishization was somehow worse because there was always something predatory about people (typically, men) labeling me and my culture as “exotic.” To be quite frank, this has only ever occurred in white-dominated spaces.

Previously, it felt like the narrative of what cultures are “cool” and which ones didn’t make the cut was completely based upon how much white acceptance had occurred (whether this is in interpersonal relationships or in terms of society). In the last couple of years, I, and many of my friends have personally felt this framing of culture to change.

A great example of this is in the music, television, and food that many second-gen immigrants and their friends consume. As someone who primarily spends time with others who’ve had the same experiences as me (second-gen, people of color, etc.), many of us come from different cultures and are a broad range of ethnicities. Due to this, we are all often sharing various aspects of our cultures with one another to form an interlocking community of cultural ties and things that we can enjoy as a group. For example, some of my friends will come over to eat Persian food at my house sometimes, and at other times we will go get Indian food at our Desi friend’s favorite restaurant. When we are all hanging out or getting ready to go out at night, we’ll often get ready to a mixture of Bollywood music, Reggaeton, and popular American music.

In no way have any of us ever felt like our cultures were something we couldn’t be proud of discussing and sharing with each other. It is in this way that many of us have felt like we have adopted a unique global life perspective, all the while maintaining our own roots and values. This connection and bond that many people of color, specifically second-generation immigrants feel is something that, beyond being a way to find new music and delicious food, provides a safe space in which people can grow closer to one another and recognize that many of our life experiences are the same even though we come from different parts of the world. Furthermore, the embrace of each other’s culture can help to normalize the same things that we maybe weren’t as proud of before.

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