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Culture complex

By Yasmin Assemi
March 15, 2001
The Iranian

There's a face peering out of the mirror at me

A face that shifts with the changing tides

One that can assemble

Adapt

Our kind belong in 2 worlds

One Iranian

One "farangi"

They call me sefid

Which I am

But I am also Persian

My heart is torn between two worlds

Each claiming me a member of their society

But what am I?

The Census doesn't have a box for me

And "Other" is NOT a category

Am I a girl with one foot in each culture

Or two people in one body?

I cannot simply mark white

Regardless of what the historians tell me

My identity changes with the culture

As each group of people see a different half

With the rapid changing of our times

As globalization takes its toll

A new Iranian is born out of the emigrants of our beloved Iran

We are all half

This new generation of Iranians living in America

Be it by blood or mentality

Taking the best of both worlds

Close to our hearts

And offering society our ever-widening minds

A salad of racial genes we all are

Whether we have one Iranian parent or two

The phrase "full Persian" is inaccurate and becoming extinct

As we step onto the shores of Multiculturalism

Those of you scouring the crowds

Searching for fellow countrymen

Just might miss

The Inverse Coconuts

The unseen minorities of America

Whom you cannot identify by appearance alone

Peering out at you from behind the curtains.

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