I want to introduce you to my other blog:
Multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial, multi-multi...
Multi who, multi what? A blog about mixed identity, by one of the world's few (?) Somali-Armenian Americans.
...Tiger Woods is Cablinasian, this lady's Armali.
I've done some renovation, and now I'll be approaching it from a different (more personal) angle. I'm reposting this most recent entry here, because this is an important part of who I am, and because I thought this would be a good way to announce the rebirth of
Multi What?*
What's an
Armali?
To start with,
I'm half Somali and half Armenian. I could go with Somenian, but I think Armali sounds nicer, right?
That means
I'm half black and half white---like a certain president we know, I have a black African father and a white (ish?) American mother.
oh THAT's healthy!
My mother is a second generation
Armenian American (or third generation, depending on how you count it---her grandparents all came to the US from Armenian villages in Turkey around 1915-1920s.) My father is
Somali. He was born and raised in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, and first immigrated to the US as a young man. My parents met in Boston, Massachusetts. I have a younger sister and brother by the same parents.
But that's not all! (Ha, I feel like a game show.)
My mother's first husband was Ghanaian, and I have two sisters by that marriage. So they're half Ghanaian and half Armenian. Their father's second wife is Tanzanian, and my sisters have a brother (my step-half brother?) by that marriage, who's half Tanzanian and half Ghanaian.
My father's second wife was
European American, and I have one sister by that marriage. So she's half European American and half Somali.
My stepdad, my mom's husband now, is
African American, and I have two stepbrothers (by his first marriage) who are African American on both sides.
My stepmom, my father's wife now, is
Somali, and I have a whole lotta siblings who are Somali on both sides.
My mother has only one sibling, my uncle. My aunt-by-marriage is
Jewish American, and my only maternal first cousin (he's like my brother) is half Jewish and half Armenian.
My name is
Arabic, and I minored in Arabic in college, but
English is my only native language. My parents never taught us
Somali or
Armenian---I really,
really want to learn, someday.
I was raised
Muslim---I think of myself as agnostic now, just FYI. My mother's family are
(at least nominally)
Armenian Orthodox Christian, and since my aunt is
Jewish, we kids got to know all kinds of holidays, when we were growing up
: )I have family in Boston, New York, Arizona, Virginia, London, Kenya and who knows where else!
Okay, I know I'm forgetting something...
