Her book is a love letter to her families while still being an honest view of the impact of whiteness on children of color. She is open and honest about her own struggles with asking the problematic question of where someone is from, of her own code switching, and her own disdain for her heritage as a child even while she loved her family deeply. Gharib has created a graphic memoir that shows so many elements of being from an immigrant family, being a person of color, and being of mixed race and heritage. As she grew up, she began to figure out how to value her own unique cultural background and celebrate it. Malaka considered white culture something to long after, wishing for sandwich lunches and the lifestyles she saw on TV. There are stories of breaking unwritten rules in Egypt by skateboarding in the streets as well as tales of not being fully accepted by the Filipino kids at school. She learned to meet both families’ expectations though sometimes they contradicted one another and how to carefully switch between the two. In this vibrant graphic novel, Malaka tells the story of growing up as a child of an Egyptian father and a Filipino mother in the United States. I Was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib (9780525575115)
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