Imani’s interview

The speaker discusses their perspective on America, describing it as a privilege with both positive and negative aspects. They mention the complexity of American identity due to its size and diversity. They feel most American when traveling and least American when they disagree with what is happening in the country. They mention the importance of understanding American and world history, particularly the milestones and acknowledging the past. They also discuss the intersectionality of their American identity with their other identities, highlighting the impact of unanswered questions about their heritage. They express a strong interest in learning about different aspects of their identity. Okay, what does America mean to you? America? Um... Um... I don't know. I don't know. Like... I... This is like kind of contradicting, but I feel like America is like a privilege to be in because there are like a bunch of privileges to living in America like having an American passport and traveling is like a lot easier than like having any other type of passport but it's also like there are definitely some like crazy things in America but also like probably almost like strictly American but like a lot of like shootings, like police fatalities and stuff like that but like I do like think of like America as like my home like, you know Okay, how would you define American identity? Um... American identity... Um... I think American identity is like very complex, especially with like how big America is like definitely like depending on where you live like I live in like five different states and I feel like my identity of like being American, I think so much like just throughout like yeah, it's like really interesting and um, yeah, there's just like a lot of things that like hide your identity I think that like don't... Oh wait, I also think like American identity is like just like well, all identities are like good, but also like America itself is just like a melting pot like there's so many people with so many different cultures and that's really nice cause like American identity can like be so diverse and like really like depend on like a bunch of different variables Okay, um when do you feel most American and when do you feel least American? Um, I feel most American when like traveling Yeah, yeah Once the time was on I was just like, I was just clocked as American like 24-7 I was just like, wow, this is like really different cause like I've never like like I always think, of course I think of myself as American, but I've never like really taken that time to like consider what that means until I went to time alone Yeah, um, and then whenever I feel least American Um, whenever like Um when do you feel least American? Like probably whenever like I don't really like what's going on with America like I don't know, but there's like like there was um a recent lynching in North Carolina and I'm just like I don't wanna like I'm so scared like I just like school shootings like there was like a really big school shooting in Georgia like I hate like knowing the fact that we literally share like a same identity like Um, yeah I don't like it at all That's so fair And then what are some of your favorite or most important stories and lessons you'd like to share about the U.S. and world history? Oh, it's like it could be a long story or a larger scale like history Um Wait, can you repeat the question? Yeah, of course. What are some of your favorite or most important stories and lessons you'd like to share about the U.S. and world history? I think Um I think I mean honestly like I know it's kind of repetitive but like remembering like that like America was just like a huge milestone for us and like also like acknowledging like I think a lot of like America's past is like very important What are you talking about? Me? Oh Um I can read a lot of things over there Yeah, I think I'll save it Um I can also edit it later Yeah Um That's like I think I have a question but I feel like there's so many to pick and then there are also like I don't know there are probably stories that like I have that I don't even think like Yeah Um I don't know Well, my whole experience at Thatcher I think has been like very interesting like I think I would consider like Carol like one of my closest friends at Thatcher She's from Beijing and that has been like very like eye-opening with certain things I think like for the both of us but I think like especially me like just kind of like thinking about the way like other countries like view America like how American like health takes their handle and just kind of like Yeah just like American life in general Yeah It's just like kind of crazy to the point where like like like the Trump attempted assassination how it's gotten to a point where like we were to like exchange political points where it's like I feel like it's not like that in other countries Yeah It's just crazy because also like America like I don't know like like 2012 the debate between like Barack Obama forgetting the other person like they had like such like a they still had like humanity and like like I don't like so much respect for each other Yeah, there's just like looking at like the Trump and like Biden debate like when like Biden was like talking about like Trump having sex with porn stars I was just like we literally have like no respect for each other in like political and I think it's like really interesting because I think America like like through my past experience I have like realized that America like can be so dividing and like put people in like so many boxes like a lot of people like I don't know like refuse to like hang out with someone who like thinks like a political like who's a part of like a different political party or something like that really interesting just because like you're one religion you can't talk to another which is like really interesting because like I grew up in like a multi religion household I guess and I didn't think it was like that difficult but yeah I think that's one thing that has definitely been very eye opening yeah I definitely think about that a lot when thinking about like my American identity yeah okay now the last question is how does the intersectionality of your American identity and your other identity form who you are today um that's a really good question I think there are a lot of questions about my identity that like I will never know because of like American history and kind of like how it's been documented in the past like like slavery in the US like there's like not really any documentation of like like that many slaves or like definitely hammer and accounts of a lot of slaves and stuff like that I'll never know like that side of like like my identity in the same way that I know like my Jewish identity type thing yeah that's definitely shaped like a lot of like my identity because there was a time where like I took like an ancestry test and like there was just so many like questions like so many unanswered like wow that's really just like interesting and I've like always like wondered about that you know like where like my last name came from yeah that's something like I'll never know not that like I always have that like pain over my head but like I definitely think that's like changed the way I think in like some aspects like whenever I get a chance to learn about like black identities in general like I'll literally always take it and like that doesn't just apply to like my black identity but like even like my Jewish identity like I love like learning more about my Jewish identity just cause like I like love understanding my own history and like having having like not having the ability to know like to know some of my identity has made it so that I'm very interested in learning all the parts of my identity that I can learn yay yay