The Little Box We Never Fit Into

The little box we never fit into is the box you are forced to check on standardized tests. The one that makes you pick what ethnicity you are. There are always about 6 or 7 choices that are something like: Native American, Latino, White/Caucasian (What is Caucasian anyway?), Pacific Islander, African American/Black, Asian, and Other.

So, I looked up exactly what Caucasian was and according to the dictionary, it is: “relating to people who are light-skinned or of European origin “ and also “belonging to the light-skinned peoples of Europe, northern Africa, and western and southern Asia, formerly considered a distinct ethnic group”. Well that cleared things up considerably, didn’t it? So, if I am a light skinned person from Algeria, then I am Caucasian. What about if I am a light skinned person from South Africa? Am I Caucasian? Am I African? Or, do I go by the fact that I am technically a white African? Good Lord, how can any one person fit into this?

What if we don’t fit into the little box? What if we are more than one of these? What does it matter if we are Pacific Islander? What if we don’t want to be in the box? As a person whose ethnicity is 100% Irish, I know which box I am supposed to fill out. White. But, you know what? I always felt cheated. I wasn’t a person that was interesting, and got to pick one of the more complicated choices, I was the white girl. But, you know, I never really liked being called white. It doesn’t say anything about who you are or where you are from. The more interesting part is that if I feel this way, then how in the world must someone feel that is Chinese-American and Nigerian? Then what do you choose? What if you are from Iraq? You are from the continent of Asia, but would not always be considered “Asian”, you are Iraqi. Or what if you have dual citizenship from America and Canada? Does that still only qualify you as only white?

What is white? My skin tone is much peachier or even pink in color, certainly not just plain old white. White is boring, and non-interesting. White is the majority white is bland. You know what is much more interesting? Colors are much more interesting. But at the same time, Natives have been called red, Asians have been called yellow, and Africans black or brown. What is this obsession with color? And, why must we say what “color” we are on standardized tests? It is honestly infuriating to be pigeonholed into one tiny little box.  If I feel that way, then how in the world must the other people feel when they are forced to fill out the box? Humiliated/confused/proud/racist/baffled?

The dreaded standardized test.

This woman came up when I googled "Caucasian"

The apparent region where "Caucasians" hail from, notice that it is in ASIA!

 A Nigerian woman and an Asian American man. What box will their child fill out on the SAT?

"A Pacific Islander woman"  Whatever that really means.