Why It Feels Like You Can’t Win With Either Side… (A Diaspora Experience)

本站添加: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Growing up in a diaspora is an uphill battle. Like every single day, you are always judged or penalized for not being born in Eritrea or growing up there, you know? They will use that to diminish your points or invalidate your opinions about certain issues regarding the country or even the culture, you know, it doesn't always have to be about politics. It can literally just be about culture. People will always say to me specifically, they'll say, "You're not Eritrean or you're not Habesha." And I'm looking at them and I'm like, "First of all, bro, how the hell did you get into this country? You know what I'm saying?

[00:00:33]Like who Who's checking the pa- Check his papers, bro. This guy don't even speak English, fam. Is he even Eritrean?

[00:00:40]This guy looks Bengali."

[00:00:41]I'm joking. Shout out to all the Bengalis watching, fam, you know? My best friend's Bengali for real. But no, all jokes aside, like being a part of diaspora, I always felt this sense of not truly belonging, not truly being a part of one group or one place, which is kind of funny cuz obviously you look at me and you can tell that I'm Eritrean.

[00:00:59]I'm from Africa. But I grew up in London, the UK. So, that's significantly affected my life and you know, my environment growing up has been significantly different from what it would have been if I grew up in Eritrea.

[00:01:12]Now, I'm very grateful to have grown up in London and the UK for multiple reasons. I've met so many cool people, had great experiences, I've learned a lot, but there's always a small part of me that knows that there's a chip on my shoulder that I'll never really truly understand how it feels like to be being Eritrean from Eritrea. Do you get it? A lot of times when I speak about my opinions on certain topics, not just about politics, but even about culture, people invalidate my opinion or what, you know, what I have to say purely because I'm a part of the diaspora. It's an unspoken rule that if you're born in Eritrea or you grew up in Eritrea, your opinion has more weight, has more validity than somebody who was born in the diaspora. It's like this like two two-tier system. People back home, their opinion matters more than the diaspora, which I think is a bit ridiculous. Now, when it comes to like politics and growing up in Eritrea, then obviously like their opinion is important, right? But, even when it comes to that cultural stuff, there are some people back home from my personal experience that kind of like who come over here and they'll be judging. They they look down on you. They say, "Oh, you ain't one of us." Why is that?

[00:02:17]Because I didn't grow up in the same position as you. I didn't I wasn't in the same situation as you. That's a bit ridiculous.

[00:02:23]And it really had me thinking like, why do they act like that? Why do they have this kind of >> [snorts] >> I don't know resentment, jealousy, envy?

[00:02:30]Why do they have that towards the diaspora? I think the main reason is because they look at us as people who have been given ample opportunities, like loads of opportunities, loads of access to money and resources.

[00:02:45]They look at us and they say, "How can you guys have everything given to you and still not be in better positions?"

[00:02:51]Which is so funny cuz I can actually relate to that cuz like that's how I be feeling sometimes when I see other people with, you know, better opportunities than me, more money, more access to wealth. I'll be thinking the same thing. So, I'm not going to knock them for that, but I feel like they need to understand that it's definitely a lot harder and it's not as easy as they think it is to become very super ultra wealthy and successful in the UK specifically. But, I don't think a lot of them have that kind of like open-mindedness towards us cuz they're looking at it like we have life sweet, you know, our life is sweet compared to them. So, they expect us to be doing more. So, that's where I feel like a lot of these feelings come from. Sometimes the most judgment and hate that you'll receive are from the diaspora people themselves. Like, the people that you grew up with in the community or grew up around with, these are the people that hate on you and judge you the most. But, why is that? Why do they judge you the most? Why are they judging you? And why are they hating on you when they're in the same exact position as you? And my honest opinion for that is I think they're doing it for survival, insecurity. A lot of these people in the community are insecure about their own position and their own situation. They understand that they're in the same boat as me, for example, like they didn't grow up in Eritrea. They grew up over there, and they don't want to be clowned or made fun of for being a diaspora. So, their way to avoid that is to dictate and police everybody else's language, everybody else's accent, their their knowledge of culture, dances, their connections within the community. A lot of it is status-driven, and I know it sounds funny, but people actually do really care about it within their community.

[00:04:27]So, you know, they care about their cultural the ties. They don't want to be exiled from the community. They They still want to be a part of it. So, for me and my personal experience about growing up in this environment, you're getting bombarded from both sides.

[00:04:40]You're being told that you're not Eritrean enough by the people back home, and you know, you're being judged from the people back home, but also when the diaspora people are judging and hating on you, purely out of survival, or even like from a sense of competition. They might even see you as a competitor for certain resources and opportunities, cuz in their mind, they see you as somebody that's like could compete with them.

[00:05:03]There's also that aspect as well. And then, obviously, like growing up in London, I'm looking around like, you know, most of the people are English, or they're like, you know, they're non-Eritreans. They might be Asians, Arabs, Jamaicans, Caribbean people. So, there's also that angle of like not even truly feeling like a part of my environment. You understand? But at the end of the day, I don't hate it. You know, I'm appreciative of being over here and the people that I've met, the knowledge that I've gained, the experiences that I've had. I feel like for me, I'm very fortunate in being confident and secure in my opinions and who I am as a person. I don't really let a lot of this noise affect me like that.

[00:05:44]But I am a human being at the end of the day. So, and I guess there is a small part of me that kind of like feels like I'm missing something, you know, like I'm I'll never really truly understand how it feels like to be from back home. It's It's crazy, like it's it's so crazy. But, I really want people to understand that like me as a diaspora person, I'm still the same person as the people back home. I grew up in London and I'm the same as these Londoners. I have the same experiences them, but we are all one people. The Londoners, the Eritreans back home, the Africans back home. We're human beings at the end of the day. We're all part of the same group. We're all a part of the same team. But, specifically for the Eritreans who are watching this, me and you are on the same team. We all want the same things. We want a better life for ourselves, a better future. And I feel like there's a lot of stuff that we can learn from each other. Cuz right now, there is an unspoken, you know, kind of like separation between the people that come over and the diaspora.

[00:06:44]The two-tier system. People be People come over kind of chill in that group.

[00:06:49]The diaspora be chilling in that group.

[00:06:51]When I go to Eritrea, I've seen this as well. A lot of the diaspora be chilling with diaspora people. A lot of the locals be chilling with the locals. But, we're one people, man. Like we are one people.

[00:07:02]We have similar experiences, same goals in life. We should come together, man.

[00:07:06]We should learn from each other.

[00:07:08]We'll achieve great things. That's how I look at it, like we're all a part of the same team. I think one day people will realize that and understand that. And I want to let people know from now that no matter where we're from and what our upbringing is, we're all a part of the same team. And I feel like we should all help each other out. So, I'd love to learn more about my language, but sometimes I struggle because there's not really any help or guidance that I have for that. So, I'd really appreciate for me, you know, I had a bit more help and guidance from the people back home and my community. I'd really appreciate that. But, also there's a lot of stuff that I would love to help out people with if they need help with it.

[00:07:45]We come together, we can achieve great things. So, so thank you for watching.

[00:07:48]Please like this video and subscribe to the channel. It really does help out the channel grow, and yeah, we are all one people.