Telling someone that I am half-Indian always guarantees an interesting response. It often takes some clarification: “yes, from India”, “yes, my father is actually Indian, as in brown coloured skin”, and “I couldn’t tell you why my genetics are like this, but yes, I know that I am white.”

In any case, the more notable experiences happened mostly as I was growing up. It is a different experience forming a personal identity when you come from a mixed background. For one, while most kids saw their fathers as the stereotypical super-man who looks a certain way, dresses a certain way, comes to career day, and coaches sports in a fairly uniform manner, it was always funny for me to get comments from my friends saying “that’s your dad?!”

When I was in junior high I had a friend over to work on a project, and when he saw my Dad he was so confused that he confessed to me, “I thought that was just some guy living in your house”. When I told him that it was my Dad he asked, “were you adopted?”

In many ways I feel very similar to my parents, but people think I am different because of the way I look. I believe myself to be quite similar to my father in personality, but no one outside of my family ever says to me “you’re just like your father”. It can feel alienating when you identify with someone so closely but to whom you look very different.

Most often I get the response of “but you don’t look brown at all”. I’ve heard this response so many times that I almost wait for it. It does, sometimes, happen that people say, “I can kind of see it”, but more often than not people will think I’m playing around with them until I assure them that I am, in fact, half-Indian. I’ve become used to these responses over the years. It is strange to people that I have a Caucasian complexion but am actually 50% of Indian heritage.

The amazing thing about my circumstance, however, is that it gives me a chance to connect with two completely different cultures, and it helps me engage people who often have a closed mind on inter-racial issues, and show them that there is no harm in mixing cultures.