All American looks--but with a Russian twist

If I showed you a picture of me with my friends at school, you would see me, a Caucasian girl, in the midst of four Asian girls.

If I asked you to guess which one of us was born and raised in California, chances are, you would pick me.

But that would be wrong. The fact is, it's one of the Asian girls in the picture who is the San Jose native. I was born in another country.

Just because I have what are called European features - light skin, light brown hair, eyes that sometimes look green, brown or blue - I'm the one who would be labeled the stereotypical California girl.

My background comes as a surprise to many people.

My family immigrated from Minsk, Belarus, when I was about 2 years old. We moved first to Maryland, then to San Jose. Being a Russian immigrant, I have more in common with some of my Asian-American immigrant friends than you would guess by looking at me.

Like my friend Emily Chan, who came from Taiwan, I speak a foreign language at home, eat ethnic foods that my grandma cooks and have touches in my house that you wouldn't find in most American homes.

For instance, at my house we have many items that are traditionally very Russian. Matryoshka dolls are displayed on shelves, hand-painted oil-on-metal trays hang on the walls and Khokhloma wooden spoons are in the kitchen. When friends come over, they see these uncommon items from my culture and wonder what they are.

In the same way, when friends gather at Emily's house, some of them have wondered about the Chinese decorations in her house. The Chans, who all speak Chinese, have wood carvings of animals in their living room, which are from the Chinese Zodiac family.

It's one of the things that bonds me to Emily.

Kristen Yasukawa, another friend who is a fifth-generation Japanese-American, says people always expect her to know how to speak Japanese, even though she doesn't know more than a few words. She considers herself entirely Americanized and finds it odd when people sometimes are surprised by her family's American customs. Because there's still such a stereotype that an American is white, it will always be harder for her to be first considered American before Asian-American.

The irony is that because of the way I look, I will never be labeled an "immigrant," even though I am. I will always have an easier time fitting and blending in. Being in a country where Caucasian people are the majority, my ethnicity and race will probably never be an issue.

If I wanted to lose my "foreign-ness", I could. But Emily and Kristen would have a much more difficult time.

We're all living in America, yet our appearance makes all the difference.