I’ve moved three times in the course of my life, and everywhere I've moved, people thought I was Indian. I was born in Connecticut and then I moved to Missouri when I was five. After living in Missouri for 8 years, I moved to Hawaii in 2023. I have lived in America all my life.

In Connecticut I didn’t really get called "Indian," but when I moved to Missouri everyone said out loud that they thought I was Indian. I am ethnically Sri Lankan, but because I look Indian that’s what everyone assumes. It is really annoying. It would be really nice one day if people would stop asking me "what I am." Some people even assume I’m from some other Asian country, or call me African-American. It is really exhausting to tell them that they are incorrect almost every day. I am glad that my friends are finally willing to explain to other people that I am not Indian, but people still assume that my parents only eat curry and rice, or that they wear jewelry on their foreheads.

I was hoping that when I moved to Hawaii these assumptions would stop because Hawai'i has such a variety of different cultures. But it didn’t get better. It has actually gotten worse because people here are even more interested in identifying and categorizing others based on their ethnicity or location of origin. I thought that people in Hawai'i would know smaller countries such as Sri Lanka, but they don’t. They still assume I’m South Asian. Everywhere I go, people ask if I’m Indian, or say that they think I’m Black. I wish they would accept my response that I am American, of Sri Lankan descent.

Now I try to just ignore people, and let them continue to guess different countries for me until they give up. It still hurts though, because there are a lot of people who yell at me saying that I am Black, or Indian, and I can't seem to correct them by saying “I’m not” because they just identify me as they want to, not as I am. It exemplifies their ignorance, but they will never see that.

I wish people would realize that there are more than just a couple of Asian countries. Just because I look Indian, and the country my parents are from is not well known, doesn’t mean that I'm Indian. They should become more educated and learn about the world around them and think about how they treat others. I think that while living in America, I will unfortunately need to get used to this, as I am likely to keep experiencing this throughout my life. Sri Lanka is not a very well known country, so I doubt people will ever know that I’m from there. Hopefully someday people will listen and be willing to learn.

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