In my life so far, I have lived in two countries, both of them vastly different from each other in terms of culture, economy, people and perspective - India and USA. Hence, the aspects of my identity that were most vital were very different as well. In India, where I grew up the most important aspect was my gender because of the wide gap between how males and females are treated socially. In USA where I came for college, my race and nationality plays a big role in my day to day interactions.
I grew up in India - a developing country where the social structure is a little backward even up to this day. Me being a male definitely affected how I was treated by people on a daily basis. Patriarchy is still so prevalent in the society, I think I was definitely benefited from that. Starting at home, my curfew was very flexible, I was not expected to help out with the household chores and I had the freedom to go anywhere by myself (Delhi being safer for males compared to females). On the flip side, being a boy, my dad was much harder on me compared to my sister, I was supposed to pay more attention to my studies and
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The culture was so different and in my opinion liberal and advanced; it almost didn’t matter what my gender was. However, two things that played a big role in how I was perceived and interacted with - my race and nationality. My race - Asian and brown skinned, came with a lot of stereotypes that I have to struggle with on a daily basis. For example, people believe that Indian people smell, are supposed to be great at Math and are poor and backwards. These expectations and false notions affect my image in front of people. My nationality on the other hand results in me being very different from other people. I don’t speak english very well, so that affects my social interactions and me speaking up in my classes. Furthermore, I grew up in a different culture, norms and food, it is an adjustment on an everyday