Jasmine Rashid
THE AMERICANS
I created this portrait series as a personal reflection on
multiculturalism and citizenship in a country that has always
been preoccupied with binary identification. The idea began with
my own diasporic experience, in which I have come to know my
father’s homeland only through visual culture; distanced by
physical space and literacy. From there, I shot with three
individuals, in their personal settings, allowing each subject to
ascertain nuanced systems of representation in order to document
the multiplicity of lived experiences.
Here, you’ll find one individual who has consistently been denied
a credible Afro-Latino identity, as a result of those around him
not understanding the different meanings of constructed “race”
versus “ethnicity.” Another is one who often nostalgically longs
to be elsewhere; with the place she calls home positioned on the
other side of the world and loved ones remaining internationally
distanced. Our final subject has been externally identified as a
noncitizen – encountering the simplified and unwelcomed
stereotypes that accompany this position –despite living in
America for the majority of his life.
While the stories documented in the images are individual
accounts, the experiences aim for universality for those of us
who have ever been othered and politicized by the constraints of
American society. Existing as a multicultural subject is
beautifully and uniquely laden in unending complexity, as we
attempt to portray our authentic selves to the outside world
while simultaneously coming into new understandings of who we are
internally.
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