Long Tran
My name is Long Tran. I am a part of the first generation of American born citizens in my family. My parents left Vietnam on a boat during the war. The violence occurring at the time pushed them to leave their families and search for a better life. Their struggles have motivated me to work hard in school and everything I do. The only time Vietnam is mentioned in the media is in reference to the war. Vietnamese people are not a violent group of people. Vietnamese people are simple people. Many people from Vietnam own small shops or farms. My race does not play a big role when I interact with those around me because I have surrounded myself with people that accept and support me for who I am. However, I still feel like I am treated differently because I am Vietnamese. I only realized this as I got older. When people first meet me, there are a set of Asian stereotypes that are imposed on me. I believe one of the aspects that contributes to this stereotype is a lack of Asian representation in television and movies. Stereotyping plays a big role in our society at the moment. Currently, society is afraid of immigrants because they have generalized large populations of people. My physical appearance would make people categorize me in certain groups. I am a very active person in my community, so being boxed into a specific group would not align with who I am as a person. It is important for us to look past the physical world because everyone is different. In our society, race and culture do play a major role because people usually use stereotypes to obscure the individuality of other people. When I look in a mirror, I see someone who's motivated to push himself. I think other people see an approachable, talkative guy. I am a martial arts fanatic. I may not seem like the strongest or biggest person, but martial arts has been ingrained in me since I was young. At the ripe age of six, I started to practice MMA and kung fu. At Bellarmine, I joined the wrestling team. Being Vietnamese means being a fighter, being able to overcome any adversity.
Christian Nuñez
My name is Christian Nuñez. It’s taken me a long time, but I am finally at a point where I do not make assumptions on appearances. It’s so hard, in a world full of people that constantly do this. People make assumptions about me based off of my clothes and even my hair. It’s pretty dangerous to assume so much about a person based off of something as simple as their hair. Overall, it makes it that much harder to form a connection to that person. Everything is built upon that first impression, or their hair, or their fashion style. It’s tough, because there’s so much to me that people can’t know just based on my looks. I’m full of experiences and talents and stories that no one can know about without asking. Being Mexican, gay, and atheist all play a part in who I am. It shouldn’t necessarily be “readily apparent,” but most of the time I find myself in a situation where people don’t acknowledge that others can be anything other than straight. What’s sad about this world is that there are people that will reject me for any one of these things, for no solid reason. It’s frustrating. However, the people that accept, or maybe even appreciate these qualities are the ones I can actually form bonds with. TV is getting better at portraying people like me. I don’t see people that go through my experiences, but at least there is representation among Latinos and LGBT people. Of course, there are still some stereotypical representations. However, we’re finally reaching the point where media has some diversity. I now see LGBT characters that are focused on aspects other than their sexuality. There could be a better quality of representation though. Our society says that our appearances define a person. I didn’t realize this until elementary school, when someone referred to me as “that Mexican kid.” It’s a part of me, but it doesn’t define me. Our society makes a huge deal about these kinds of things, especially when it comes to labels and categorization. For example, when people hear the words “Mexican”, “gay”, or “atheist,” they automatically have a picture of it in their mind. Only when people are able to push past these preconceptions can we truly celebrate diversity. I’ve had so many experiences in life already, yet it seems like life’s only just begun. When I think about this, I realize that everyone feels the same way. Everyone you see has a completely different identity with completely different experiences. I hope that people can respect that.
Ian da Silva
My name is Ian Francis Serdjo da Silva. Both of my parents were born in West Africa. They are both Catholic and have raised me likewise. My whole life I’ve always been a people person. I’m incredibly friendly and funny, and I enjoy spending time with friends and getting to meet new people. I am an altar server, a lector, and a Boy Scout. I run track and I have done robotics for 6 years. Some stereotypes depict African Americans as athletically inclined, but I like being able to prove that African Americans can be smart too with my 4.0 GPA. This can seem discouraging, but I see it as an opportunity to represent my community in places where we aren’t usually found. Social media portrays people of my race as loud, arrogant, and vicious. Because of these portrayals, someone might look at me and feel intimidated. This causes interactions out in public to be tense and stressful, which damages the community. These portrayals are the root of racism, the parents of stereotypes. But we can change them. Being black carries a lot of weight with it. After over 200 years of not even being considered human, being black drags a negative connotation with it. I feel the need to swim against the current that is the black stereotype. When I go out in public, I feel that every good deed, every smile, every “hello” to someone I don’t know, might change how they think of black people forever. I feel that in everything I do, I am representing my black community worldwide. I have a responsibility to portray the potential that black people everywhere possess and what it really means to be black. At first, it weighted me down, made me uncomfortable, and made me angry. But as I got older, I saw an opportunity. Instead of fighting hatred with anger, I could fight it with light. I realized if I could show people how amazing African Americans are, I could change how most people see other people of color. This can then better future interactions between different races, causing a ripple of change. My personal mission is to make the world a better place. Even if it’s just making someone smile, in every little thing I do, I have the chance to improve the world. Why should I focus on myself, one person, when I can be helping everyone around me? This mentality has shaped me into who I am today. Compassionate, selfless, creative, hilarious, remarkable, a leader, a light in a world of dark. I am Ian Francis Serdjo da Silva. And that name will be around long after I’m gone
Promit Biswas
My name is Promit Biswas, and I’m a senior at Bellarmine. Both of my parents are Indian. When I look into the mirror, I simply see myself as an Indian kid living in the Bay Area. Based on my physical appearances, I think that the fact I play soccer might not be as obvious to most people. As Indians, I think we're stereotyped to be academic more than anything else, which I honestly don’t think is that bad. After all, it's not bad to be smart, but I think that there’s a lot being left out as well. I know that there’s a lot more to people than just how they look. As someone who isn’t everything that they look to be, I think I’ve learned this first hand. The media portrays Indians in a very one directional way. For example, only as nerds, or in other cases as taxi drivers or convenience store owners. I think that these problems are being fought more actively with the presence of new South Asian faces like Hasan Minhaj or Kumail Nanjiani in popular media. However, I think that growing up in the Silicon Valley, which is probably one of the most diverse areas in the country, has kind of prevented me from facing some of the biases or prejudices other people face. In the Bay Area, there are definitely a lot of Indians. I think that these aspects definitely contribute to a sense of community, and it’s important not only to explore one’s own community, but also to explore other cultures and communities as well.
Omar Battisha
My name is Omar Battisha. I’m a Muslim, an Arab, a North African, a Middle-Easterner, and an Egyptian-American. You can’t really tell that I’m a Muslim from my physical appearance. You might be able to tell that I’m a Middle-Easterner from my physical appearance, but in my experience, many people don’t even know how Middle-Easterners look like, and so I’m often mistaken for being “half black-half white.” Just from my appearances, you can’t tell that I like talking a lot, you can’t tell that I like Irish Folk music, you can’t tell that I love photography, and you can’t tell that I’m a speech and debater or a fencer. Knowing that I am an individual, not just a member of a collective and accordingly, that I have hobbies, hopes, and character traits, humanizes me in the eyes of others. When you categorize anyone by how they look, you don’t get to know them as a person. You don’t get to learn what distinguishes them as a unique personality. It means that the only aspect of a person you would know are the stereotypes that you associate with their race and appearance, and that usually gives you more misinformation than anything else. The media rarely associates Muslims or Arabs with anything beneficial. Usually, the only time the media goes out of its way to mention that a person is a Muslim or a Arab, is when they’re talking about a criminal or terrorist. I don’t think that it’s necessarily done with any malicious intent – religion or ethnicity often are most relevant in those contexts – but choosing to only mention a person’s affiliation with the Arab or Islamic world in those contexts, and only those contexts, perpetrates an association between their horrific actions and their identities. It also causes people to create an image in their heads of Muslims and Arabs as archetypal perpetrators of such crimes. I believe the most effective way to counter such portrayals is for the media to also point out the fact that someone is a Muslim or an Arab when they do something beneficial. If there were as many news outlets connecting Mahershala Ali to Islam, as there were for Omar Mateen, the general outlook on Muslims would be much more positive. Muslims and Arabs are like anyone else, and we interact with others like anyone else.
Dominic Cabrera
I am Dominic Cabrera. I am a first-generation Latino American who's roots extend into Mexican and Peruvian soils. The memories that have remained impenetrable in my mind center not around the objects and practices of the Mexican and Peruvian cultures that I have acclimated myself with. Instead, these memories capture the beholders of these cultures. Most who don’t know me perceive me to be of some direct European descent. People tend to overlook my ability to speak Spanish. This lies especially true among my own Latino community. When I’m in taquerias or grocery stores like Mi Pueblo, workers intuitively speak broken English to me, corroborating their view of my pale skin. And even when I respond in fluent Spanish, they continue, unabated, speaking English. It’s not until I declare my bloodline or continue speaking in smooth Spanish do they let out a burst of surprise, and suddenly the barrier between two individuals from ostensibly different backgrounds is lifted, and we are linked through our Latino heritage. Even through we have largely dulled the flagrant attitudes of racism within ourselves, we must remind ourselves that racism is an omnipresent force that still operates within our institutions. When speaking of society and the media’s portrayal of Latinos, one must separate our Latino population into two segments – the citizens and then the undocumented immigrants. In these two distinctions, one can understand the way in which one segment (the undocumented immigrants) is ferociously targeted by the government and its supporters, and how this hostile atmosphere now stretches over the entire general population of Latinos. A subset of stereotypes hangs under the cloud of racism, with one that particularly bothers me most: the claim that Latinos are lazy. One only needs to scan around them in the streets, businesses, schools, and elsewhere to recognize the hard work conducted by Latinos. Latinos’ ambition is a necessary trait in a country where our arsenals of privilege are mostly empty, and the piles of economic weapons are mostly transferred into the arsenals of the white. It is exactly due to this socioeconomic reality that the ambition of the Latino worker exceeds many citizens here, for they know the consequences of lethargy, but also trudge forward after the pleasant warmth of hope.
Gabriel Young
My name is Gabriel Christian Kuizon Young, and I am a 17-year-old Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, and white American. My grandmother inspired me to be proud of my roots and culture while doing well in school and the Catholic faith. It’s an inherent human instinct to judge someone based on how they look. With me in particular, depending on what I wear, and just who I am, people automatically categorize me as Asian and treat me as if I am one. No one could say that in this society people are treated the same. Everyone judges someone based on race and it changes their behavior. That is why it is so important to look beyond the physical world and look at each person for who they truly are because there is more than meets the eye. You may never know if someone has the kindest soul or is the biggest jerk because you don’t know anything about them other than how they look. When I look at myself in the mirror, what I see is someone who isn’t just once ethnicity but a celebration of multiple. It's important for others to know about these aspects because it is who I am as a person and how I communicate to others. If people don’t know these things about me and judge me on appearances, they never get to know who I am on the inside and what drives me to do what I do. All in all, in myself, I see someone who is unique in the person and race he is. What I think other people see in me is just straight up Asian. They don’t ask nor delve into what specific ethnicity I really am, but instead assume who I am by the color of my skin, size of my eyes, hair color, and cultural behavior when they see me. The role culture, race, identity, and beliefs have played in the way I interact with everything around me is that they give me an idea and guideline on how to act in different situations, or they provide information about others. In my experience, I think these aspects play an important role because these different cultures, races, and ethnicities influence how people treat others or how they to behave in public. With this realization, it’s given me pride in myself and who I am, and with this pride, I am able to participate and enjoy my culture even more, by doing things such as signing up to take Mandarin here at Bellarmine, participating in Filipino Santo Nino Celebrations, dancing, tinikling, singing Chinese and Filipino songs, participating in the Lunar New Year, and representing my culture in clubs or fairs.
Nathan Hayes
I am Nathan Warren Hayes. Most people that see me probably view me as the curly haired white boy. I don’t blame them. I would too. Based on my appearance what most people probably don’t know is that I’m also Assyrian. My mother was born in Iran and married my American father. My looks cannot tell you that English is not my only language, but my tongue can. I take great pride in my Middle Eastern heritage and cherish the values of my culture. From the language to the food to my family, they’re all important to me. The Assyrian community is really tight knit. One of the things I’ve noticed is that we don’t define family by blood. At family gatherings, the distinction between blood and non blood relatives are obscured in a way that I haven’t noticed among Americans. And that’s the way it should be. The most important people in your life don’t have to share the same blood, just as in the same way appearances should not matter in our relationships. I’m so much more than just a pigment and even an ethnicity. My appearance can’t tell you that I’ve been playing soccer ever since my uncle gifted me my first soccer ball at the age of three, and my appearance can’t tell you my love for music--it just can’t tell you these things. White culture is such a broad category. I feel that society seems to pin a lot of problems on white people, and I can’t stand that because I don’t like to view injustice in terms of color. However, as I grow older and become more aware of the injustices in this world, I realize that to blatantly deny the offences that white people have committed against minorities would be outright ignorant. It’s a concept I really struggle with, especially since racial injustice doesn’t play a significant role in my personal life. It’s difficult to empathize with these injustices when they don’t affect you. However, as a photographer that’s what I love so much about the art of photography, of photojournalism. My camera allows me to experience things that I would otherwise never be able to experience on my own. It gives me new perspectives. When I press the shutter and capture that decisive moment, it is then when I am able to empathize with the subject. It’s as if in that moment, I am able to place myself in their shoes, and, just for a second, I understand what they’re feeling. Regardless of my skin color, I bleed the same blood you bleed, and just like you, my skin easily scars. No doubt, every one of us is unique, but we’re not as different as we think.
Jacob Noble
I am Jacob Noble, a Filipino senior at Bellarmine College Preparatory. My parents were both born in a town named Miagao, in Iloilo, Philippines, and moved into the Bay Area shortly after I was born. I make sure people know exactly where my family is from because that small town means a lot to me, and I believe that connection has shaped me into who I am today. Every time I go back to Miagao, memories of family and friends come flooding back to me. But with those memories, comes a feeling of helplessness and sadness as I see the effects of pollution, corruption, and poverty on a community and country firsthand. Dance and music plays a big part in Filipino culture. Dancing cultural dances has become a way for me to show my roots to everyone. Once you understand what makes someone unique, it starts to break past existing underdeveloped assumptions of people and makes new and improved ones. Due to the history of the Philippines, our country has taken influences from Chinese, Muslim, Spanish, and American cultures. This creates this beautiful blend of cultures, that many are proud to be a part of, but also creates this sense of uneasiness as it can become a little difficult to see what it really means to be a Filipino-American. Finding who I am and where I fit in with my roots is something that I have struggled with. It didn’t help that starting from elementary school, others seemed to think I was Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or anything other than Filipino. What could be dismissed as childhood ignorance slowly became more serious as they continued to ignore who I was and brushed it off, asking if there was even a difference among them. It is important to look past the outside when looking at people because by only focusing on the outside we ignore the entire picture. There are memories, cultural influences, desires, emotions, and individual stories that people are holding with them, and reducing someone to how they look is degrading. We spend too much time building our own schemas so that the world makes sense, but forget to really come to understand one another. I consider those around me to be part of this big community where we all should be looking out for one another.
Anik Singh
My name is Anik Singh, and I’m currently a sophomore at BCP. When I look in the mirror, I simply see Anik Singh, nothing more, nothing less. Some aspects that are not readily apparent from my personal appearances are that I’m a social person, love to play games with others, and have a great mindset and working ideology. I’m a fun, enjoyable guy, and I love to make people happy whenever given the opportunity. I believe it is important for other people to know about these aspects because it is tied to my personality. I believe that my culture has strengthened me and given me greater relationships with the people around me. Even though I have an unordinary religion as a Sikh, when I meet and associate with people, I feel that I can talk to them calmly and cleanly about my religion and begin to bond with them. This is not just confined only by religion, but also by my own personality and how I interact with others. These things are tied to who I am as a person, but nobody would be able to see them if they just looked at me. In my mind, physical appearances don’t matter at all. I don’t think much or care about what you look like because I care about who you are as a person. It’s important to look beyond these physical appearances rather than judging a book by its cover. Behind that face, there is a deep, layered personality. I believe society portrays people similar to me with a specific stereotype. They believe that Indians (and Sikhs alike), have no personality or lives other than doing well in academics, and personally, I dislike this stereotype. First of all, it is very hurtful to think of only one positive characteristic for somebody. It is also not only harmful to that one person, but also everybody else due to how stereotypes are passed around in society. I believe that we should respond to these harsh portrayals by simply giving everybody a clean slate and judging them based on their character, not their race nor stereotypes. I hope that I’ve been somebody that people can look up to, no matter what my religion is or what I have a passion for.
Artist Statement
Who are you? Every one of us are different, unique individuals that come from various walks of life. We are diverse. In today’s world, we have manipulated diversity into a means of division, when diversity should serve as a means of unification. Through this manipulation, diversity has made us apathetic towards others. We’ve become blind and are unable to see people for who they truly are because we focus too much on what divides us physically rather than what unites us spiritually. Everyone has their own individual experiences. Everyone has their own story to tell. “Our Story” is a photo project that celebrates the cultural diversity and heritage of those within our community, while also examining their different experiences and views on race and culture. A short story accompanies each photograph to provide insight about the subject beyond what is not readily apparent in the image, to go beyond just their appearances. You’ve probably noticed that all photographs are printed in black and white. Why black and white? Why not color? The intent is not to ignore our physical differences, but rather to transcend them and learn more about who each person is an individual, beyond their appearances. Black and white photography omits all the distractions presented in color photography and emphasizes emotions, especially in the eyes as our eyes often tell more stories than our words. Each subject makes eye contact with you, the viewer, to create a sense of connection. As we were working to create these stories, and as I held small conversations about culture with each of the subjects during their photoshoots, every one of them deepened my knowledge of their respective culture with a new perspective. I’m hoping that in reading these stories alongside these images, you can do the same. Whether or not you agree or disagree with the views of these subjects is not the focus. Ultimately, I hope you are able to understand and empathize with their perspectives. The world is filled with apathy, and as a community, we need to take steps towards becoming more understanding of one another in order to make the world a better place.