I've spent my whole life in Chicago being asked where am I from, so that I have a sense of displacement that also is very psychologically disorienting.
Ana CastilloI'm obviously an American citizen. My parents are American citizens. But I'm not looked at as an American.
Ana CastilloThereโs something insupportable about being pissed with the one person on this planet that sends your adrenaline flowing to remind you that youโre alive. Itโs almost like weโre mad because weโve been shocked out of our usual comatose state of being by feeling something for someone, for ourselves, for just a moment.
Ana CastilloMany European countries are fascinated with minorities from the United States. They still see this country as a world power and they covet that power...I was approached by a professor once at the Sorbonne in Paris and asked about racism in this country, and when I reflected on racism on the streets of Paris - you know, I'd be considered an Arab there -well, she didn't want to address that...It just goes to show it was easier for Europeans to study racism in the United States than it is from within the belly of the beast.
Ana CastilloAccording to our social pyramid, all men who feel displaced racially, culturally, and/or because of economic hardships will turn on those whom they feel they can order and humiliate, usually women, children, and animals--just as they have been ordered and humiliated by those privileged few who are in power. However, this definition does not explain why there are privileged men who behave this way toward women.
Ana Castillo