With Carmen, I talked about the randomness of being born in one country and automatically belonging there as well as how we all can choose where we are from. But we didn’t stop there. Carmen, whom I met at the BLM protest in Lisbon, has not only a radical empathetic approach to racist comments, she also advocates against colorism. The whole conversation was longer than two hours and I needed to cut out a lot. But feeling inspired by her words, I can not keep them for me alone. For that reason, there are two parts of this episode for your curios ears to absorb. Hmm, Lekker lekker.
In this part of the conversation, we are sober. My usual questions are roughly answered but the juicy stuff is said in between.
where are you really from
being born somewhere and choosing the importance of this fact ourself
the unnecessary guilt of choosing one culture over another
authenticity and traveling
feeling like a bridge and the privileges of being mixed-raced