Paul Barbato in Newsweek:
I grew up on the north side of Chicago in a pretty diverse school district that had students with backgrounds hailing from all corners of the world. I remember hearing a classmate speak to his mom in Polish when she picked him up. Another classmate brought Pakistani Biryani his mom made for lunch. It was a quite riveting experience at a young age to have exposure to such a vibrant student body. Everyone had a story, a history, a culture, yet we were all American kids raised on a steady diet of pop culture and pop tarts. Nonetheless, these kids’ subtle yet unique cultural undertones first sparked my curiosity to know more about the world.
This curiosity would eventually evolve into me digging deeper into my own roots. From a young age I was always reminded of my half-Korean heritage; I even have pictures of me as a baby on my 100th day celebration wearing a Han-bok. Yet, my Korean heritage was usually more of a “lingering backdrop” to my identity, as it wasn’t pressured on me by my parents to “be more Korean” growing up.
More here.
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