We moved a lot as kids, I think when my brother graduated, he had gone to five different high schools? We went to Midtown off of 14th Street, there’s a mosque out there, and I think the school at the time was North Atlanta? My dad took us out and sent us to Parkview High School in Gwinnett County. At the time it was one of the top schools in the nation. In hindsight that was a terrible idea. He thought that taking his kids out of the hood, taking them to the suburbs - basically the African version of white flight - was the move to make (laughs), and he didn't realize like, that these aren't your people. These aren’t your people. I think that was a very humbling experience for him... like the realization that he was Black in America. And like, we had been here like 10-12 years at that point. But growing up my parents weren't as overtly racist as other East African families per se. But there was still subtle things like where I was like this sounds weird, but I don't know why. There was nothing that I could pinpoint and say like yeah, that is overtly racist. But I think within our community, it exists, and it's terrible. I don't know how else to word it. That's one of those things now that I struggle with as a Muslim in America, as an African Muslim. You’re an ignored part of the community where Muslims are stereotypically brown or Arab, and the idea that you're an African Muslim is weird, and your history is just like Arab Muslim history... it's not like African, and that sucks. But yeah, people say fucked up things, and its like, wait, I'm still black, I'm still African, like I get that I Muslim, but don't get it twisted, I'm still black, and these two identities don't merge well for whatever reason. They can coexist, but they’re not looked at being able to coexist.

The impact is internalized. Because for example, my hair. If I go home, my mom is like, "What's up with your hair bro?" She's like, "Cut your hair, stop it, that's wrong." She’ll pull out cultural things, religious things, societal things, and not see that all those standards of what it means to be anything come from domination by European society and peoples. It literally all comes from that. It's not against my religion to wear my hair the way I do, and people will be like the Prophet, he had long hair, but his hair wasn’t ‘nappy,’ you know? His hair was a little more straight. But in Islam it doesn’t say follow the profit IF you fall into these categories, it just says if you’re a good person, follow the Prophet's standards, you know what I mean? And for me to do that, it’s looked at kinda weird. And it’s like, why? Why look at it that way? And It just comes from a place of - well, I don’t want to say Arab privilege, but like, Arab privilege in the Muslim community, and that comes from a place of white superiority, white domination. And I'm like, you’re in Africa bro, you’re African to the core, what are you talking about; it’s hair, why are you complaining about someone's hair, and that to me was like a big issue… growing up we would butt heads, like she’d have me go sit out on the porch for like 8 hours, like, you’re kicked out, but you can’t leave… If I see you get off this porch imma beat yo ass (laughs)... And like now we gotta work through that kind of stuff and talk about where this stuff comes from, there’s nothing wrong with it, It’s okay to appreciate your culture and your heritage, like who you are as a person, and not be looked at weird.

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Golder-mier Faustin Kamuzora