“Living in the Twilight Zone”

Abstract

Imagine you were born in Brazil and when you were only three months old you were sent away to be adopted in far-off Sweden. You spent your first few years doing what all other Swedish children of your age do: learning to walk and talk, deciding what food you like and what you won’t touch, discovering how to get your own way with your parents, and playing with other Swedish children. If anyone asked you where you really came from, you probably wouldn’t understand the question. But the first time someone asks you why you have dark hair and brown eyes when your parents are blond and blue-eyed, you might begin to feel uneasy. You would look at yourself in the mirror and realize that you are “almost the same, but not quite.”¹ From that point on, every time another child or an adult makes a remark suggesting you are “different,” that you “think differently” or “behave differently,” you would feel more and more confused. This would be the beginning of what I call an enforced hybrid identity.