My parents made me think I was another race for my whole life. I’m shocked.
For starters this is entirely true and these events occurred years ago but I’m still unsure how to feel. My mother has been a yoga instructor for many years before I was born, she taught me parts of the Buddhist and Hindu religions throughout my childhood by reading me old fables and talking to me about karma, dharma, enlightenment, reincarnation etc. From the start of my life I did baby yoga, and was taught how to meditate. You’re probably thinking that these practices don’t equate to someone’s race, which is true, so I may add my mum is on the darker side of skin tones for a white woman. She has very tan skin and dark curly hair, has my whole life, she always told me she was both Indian and Italian but I never knew the percentages of either ethnicity in her. I ended up looking very similar to her complexion-wise as I tan like I’m cooking in the oven every time I’m in the sun and my hair is also dark and curly. My whole life she told me I am brown and a POC, she immersed me in Indian traditions as I attended Holi every year as well as Diwali. Though things got more complicated when my brother was born. He has blonde hair, blue eyes and the palest skin I’ve ever seen, we don’t even look related. And before you say he could be the product of an affair, he isn’t, via genetic testing. But it made me question how Indian my mother really was. I have almost always referred to myself as a brown girl and said I’m half Indian from my mum’s side. Though the whole thing came crashing down when I took an ancestry test to see what my roots were and the test came back as 50% Italian 50% Jewish/polish. I’m 100% European. My mum took the same test and we found out she’s only about 2% Indian. My dad completely rolled with it and they let me think I’m a race I’m not for the longest time, now I make jokes about how white I am all the time. This was a total mind fuck, tell me your thoughts.