22 November 2008 - am I
I got treated like an illegal immigrant at the post office the other day. I'm renewing my Australian passport and I have to do this at the post office. Now, I'm half asian. English is my first language and I speak it better than most of my friends who are "real Australians". It annoys me so much when I get told that I'm not "real" because the colour of skin is slightly more tanned, my hair is dark and I have dark eyes. If it weren't for my physical appearance I would just be like everyone else.
So anyway, I walk in and the woman behind the counter talks to me slowly as if I wouldn't be able to understand her. She tells me that my Japanese birth certificate isn't real and look like photocopies of the original document. They aren't photocopies, they have been stamped all over the place. Over the staples, on the back of the paper; everywhere. I ask her why she can't use my Australian citizenship certificate and she shakes her head. She rings up some head office with a "I have a young lady here trying to get a passport". I have had a passport all my life. She got told to use my citizenship certificate.
Will someone explain to me how this is not my country because I am half of another. Why am I more one half? Why can I not belong to both?
Not saying I don't claim my asian background. I love having a cultural background and perhaps it is impossible for me to ask for others to accept it. I graduated highschool with an A in english and I remember friends being annoyed with because I was "asian" yet I got a better grade. I am half. I am both from here and there. The way I am is due to me belonging to both places. I am not predominantly from one. Does the colour of my skin make me not good enough to belong to this place? Does that make me want to belong to this place?
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