"Sarkeesian’s home life was a blend of Armenian and Arabic culture. When she started school, she could barely speak English.
“I spoke Armenian. My parents were like, ‘You’ll learn English at school.’ So all of these kids made fun of me. I came home. I said, ‘I’m never speaking Armenian again.’ And I never did. It became a tension where I needed to become more like these [Canadian school friends]. I wanted to fit in.
“I struggle a lot with my own racial identity because I very much pass for white. I have a lot of white privilege. But my whole life, I’ve also gotten a lot of dumb, ‘Oh, you’re so exotic looking.’ I’ve been asked if I’m this race or that. I’m like this weird, ethnically ambiguous thing. But my family is Middle Eastern and I grew up in a city that was very, very white. My home life was such stark contrast to my friends’ home lives.”
This woman makes me so ashamed to be an Armenian, my childhood upbringing is somewhat close to hers, I too come from Armenian parents that migrated from the Mid East, I am also around the same age as her, I also moved to Toronto, Canada. Only difference is I am an actual Armenian immigrant, I didn't have her privilege to be born in Canada (in a cozy Western society) And boy was grade 5,6 and 7 ever hard for a non English speaking, "different" fish out of water , immigrant kid in Toronto in the mid nineties. Bullying was rife, and the order of the day at the time in Canadian junior high schools. I can also pass off as "white" (more Jewish or Italian white, basically I can pass off to be this chick's cousin) Still I struggled a lot to adapting and fitting in.
Got picked on a lot for having a weird accent, having an "afro" .. but none of those made me disown my own culture, or abandon my language (mother tongue) I just strove to become better and learn this (new) culture, language and the world around me without totally losing or abandoning my ethnicity. Fuck this woman!
