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The Girl Who Doesn’t Know Her Race
Recently I have met a girl who doesn’t know her race/ethnicity. Her father left her before she was born, all she knows is that she is a little bit Malaysian. But even that is complicated because Malaysian is made up of at least four major ethnic groups. Sadly, she will never know anything about her father, because her mum refuses to talk about him at all.
Do you ever question about your race or ethnicity? Why are TV programmes like “Who Do You Think You Are?” so popular? What would knowing your ancestors do to you, really?
What would my friend’s search for her ethnic identity bring her? If she finds out she’s an Indian Malay, would that change who she is? Isn’t knowing and loving her passionate, loyal South Londoner personality with enviable black wavy hair much more relevant than her mysterious race?
Since the beginning of time, human loves to name and classify things. They saw different sexual organs and name them male and female; they proceed to name race, geography, species and even abstract concepts. Some of them are wrong, most of them are pretty meaningless (The hours we debated about structuralism at university!). For me, categorisation has created more problems than benefits. Let’s see, if there has never been a binary sex, then there is no need for non-binary gender discourse today. Binary sex is as pointless as gendered…
