Ethnicity ~ Sunday, 19 August 2018

The difficulty of being Goan resides in a Catholic guilt that makes me question what relations my family, or more my ancestors, had with the Portuguese, and therefore the slave trade. Do I benefit from my name and family tree coming from Portugal, or are we Indian with a Portuguese name? Do I identify by association with global oppressors, or do I stand with those who were displaced by them, the victims of global oppression, by the sword the Portuguese changed lives, history will never return to the ages before discovery. So how do I accept my ambiguous role when I am neither black, nor white, neither victim, nor oppressor, or is it not so black and white to discuss these matters in post-colonial terms in America, or anywhere in this great, big world we live in? Will it make a difference when I make a peanut butter sandwich for lunch? Probably not. Why fuss?