FEATURE Question of Identity

We, as individuals, have the power to choose who we’d like to be. Even when outsiders oppose our nature, we still preserve that right. And as outsiders, it's important to recognize individuals have stake in who they are, and we are in the position to listen.

Jamion Nash did not grow up in the society standard family dynamic of a single-race household. Although both his parents are Black, he was born into an interracial family and experienced coming to terms with identity as most young adults have not.

You see, there is a sort of ease that comes with being just white, or just Black, or just Latino, or Asian, or Indigenous. The requirement to check a single box is, for some, an anxiety-inducing act begging one to portray a cookie-cutter version of themselves. Nash goes into detail about what it’s like identifying with multiple racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, in ways most never have to ever think about. However, it is worth the six minutes of pondering, in order to understand identity as more than appearance.  

Jamion Nash discusses growing up between two different cultures and defining his own identity along the way.