Where Are You Really From?

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you're a person of color living in the United States, chances are you've been asked more than you care to remember where you're from — no, where you're really from. In her new series "Where We Come From," NPR's Anjuli Sastry lets immigrants of color answer that question broadly, with the space and context it deserves.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Shireen Madisal Miraji.
0:01.5	I'm Jean Zembe and this is Code Twitch.
0:04.2	From NPR.
0:06.9	I sure am curious because I know this has happened to you a lot,
0:09.3	but how many times in your life have you been asked where are you from?
0:14.1	Jean, that is a defining characteristic of what it means to be Shireen Madisal Miraji.
0:19.8	That is my life.
0:20.8	I'm guessing you probably have a good answer to it by now, right?
0:25.5	No, you have guessed wrong, actually.
0:27.8	I think that despite how frequently I get asked that question,
0:31.7	I still hesitate when it comes to answering it because it's like,
0:36.4	what is that question trying to get at?
0:38.3	And I feel like now I know that it's usually a question trying to get at
0:43.8	what my racial or ethnic makeup is because I'm confusing.
0:49.0	You know, people are like, wait, why is there a name Shireen?
0:51.3	But wait, why does she pronounce things in Spanish, right?
0:54.5	So, yeah, so is that the question you're asking?
0:56.6	Are you asking me what my racial or ethnic makeup is?
1:00.3	Right, right, right.
1:02.6	And it's just not easy to answer for people like me,
1:07.1	you know, those of us out there who are Iranian-American and Puerto Rican.
1:11.3	Shireen, are you Iranian-American and Puerto Rican?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.