How do you identify yourself?
Hey yall, I’m a transracial adoptee. I am native & white and my adoptive family is Arab. I have a very traditionally Arab / Muslim name. I live in a super multicultural city and any uber I get into, restaurant I’m at, and often at work, I am asked by other Arabs where I’m from. It does not help I am racially ambiguous so I’m often assumed to be racially arab.
I have quite a bit of trauma around my experience being adopted, so it’s most times kind of a sensitive topic. Usually when I’m asked I just say “I’m native and my families Arab”, and at times I just say “oh my names from ____ country”. Sometimes I don’t like telling people I’m adopted bc then you get the sad orphan eyes LOL, especially being Muslim, it’s a good act to care for an orphan/ to marry off an orphan etc so sometimes ppl can be a little off. My adoptive family also always tells me “you’re just as Arab as the rest of us” etc- while simultaneously very much respecting my birth culture and identity. Which further kind of confuses me as to how I should identify?
I guess I’m just wondering if any of you run into similar things? Or how you introduce yourself? It also feels like a lot of personal information to tell a random stranger “hey I was an orphan”. But it also feels misleading to just say I’m from where my parents are from. Also it doesn’t help most uncles and aunties in community don’t really understand when I say “native” or “indigenous” bc they aren’t familiar with that as a racial category. Idk. Guess I’m just wondering how other people navigate that.