Always In The Minority: So What?

About 5 years ago one day, I was conversing with a friend of mine. He is first generation American, of Pakistani descent, and a (somewhat-practicing) Muslim. It had been a good time after the terror attacks of Sept. 11th. He was telling me about a recent trip by air – about how he felt discriminated by TSA employees the airport, when they pulled him aside for no reason and started questioning him and re-patting him down. He stated that ever since 9/11, he felt unfairly treated at airport security just because of his looks and color of his skin. That in this country where we are all equal, and as a native-born American he shouldn’t have to feel so blatantly discriminated against. He is right – it wasn’t and isn’t fair.

I responded, ” I know, it’s not fair. But you know what? I’m always in the minority.”

I was born and raised in India till I was sixteen. I had a good life, by God’s Grace, but coming from a Christian family, I was in the minority. In a country where Hindus make up the majority of the population, and Muslims the largest minority at 10%, Christians were far behind at only 2% of the population. Even though I grew up in a large cosmopolitan city with laws protecting democracy, there was always an underpinning of discrimination in society. Fortunately, I was young and sheltered from most of it, but there were comments that came my way that reminded me that I was not the same as the majority, and that the major religion is what was the norm and accepted in society. When I was about 12 years old, a kid and I got into a verbal argument, which she won by concluding “this is why my mother says never to be friends with Christians.” Another time, when I was in my early teens, I was asked by a grown adult (with nationalistic beliefs) how come I was a Christian. I responded by saying, “I don’t know, my parents and family are, so I am.” He asked me to go ask my family why they converted.

Since I was just a kid, I have very few memories of such things. I hadn’t lived long enough. I suspect my parents, and grandparents saw a lot more discrimination in their lives.

Now I live in the United States. And guess what? I’m still a minority. I am not white. And for that matter, if things stay on track, I am not Latino either. In my life, like many others in this country and the world, I will always be a minority. In fact, each and every one of us is in the minority, because each and every one of us puts someone else in the minority. We all do it. We like to think that someone else is different, for whatever reason, be it religion, race, tribe, creed, language, economic status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, social status, number of parents, eye color, etc and etc. – this list could go on. We are all guilty of pigeon-holing someone, and we are each victim of it too, no matter who you are or where you are from.

So what?

What do you do, when you are always in the minority? In my life, thanks to my parents influence on my brother and me, we have always built bridges. And those bridges have led us to places that we never could have believed we could be, and others never could have imagined us to be.

For every condescending comment that was made to me, I had a hundred more situations of encouragement from my other close and amazing friends who were Hindu and Muslim. I remember how many of them came to church for my confirmation, to support the auspicious event in my life. And it was because we were all Indian.

For every person in the U.S. who might see me as an unequal because of the way I look, I have had a thousand more Americans, (Native Americans, Whites, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, you-name-it) who have supported me and my family from the minute we stepped on American soil 17 years, 7 months and 19 days ago. And it’s because we are all American.

Thanks to the ability to find connections and common threads with people, my life has been such a success thus far. And I owe it all to my parents who raised me in the Christian faith, which I chose to follow as I grew. I find comfort and guidance and hope and peace through the messages in the bible. Often times, its my Christianity that has taught me the grace to be a connector. And my Christianity that taught me to see grace, when it was offered to me.

There have been plenty of hard times in my life, as there must have been in many of your lives. But it’s always the goodness of people who I remember and have been motivated by to accomplish my goals. I barely remember the bad, because it got me nowhere. It’s the good that pushed me forward in life.

There is so much more that will happen in my life. And I look forward to the continuous bridge-building.

I wanted to share this anecdote with you in the hope that you will also find common ground with people whom you think are too different from you – they may not be that different after all.

We are always in the minority. So what?

Please join us at the Church of the Village during the month of May as we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Each week we will recognize and incorporate practices from the rich and varied cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region within our worship. Our recognition will culminate on June 2nd with a grand celebration in worship.