Remember when Aaliyah and Jet Li fell in love in ‘Romeo Must Die’?

Where #ImFrom: Not an exotic object

By Winnie Wong

The cashier at the wine store around the corner from my Boston apartment asks the question as he rings me up.

“Where are you from?”

An eerie calm in Bangladesh

Five free-thinkers in Bangladesh were killed in 2015. Four more in April 2016 alone. Such killings have almost…

Will young reformers of Islam please stand up?

Where #ImFrom: Struggle for satisfaction

By Armand Cuevas

In Japan, more so than in America, I am reminded that I am not white.

The question of “Where are you from?” in a place as diverse as California was almost always innocuously aimed at your…

Direct from the Central Mediterranean: Dispatches from a search-and-rescue ship

Where #ImFrom: A little darker

By Ali Hajighafouri

In Indiana I was “Mexican,” but in Walnut Creek, California, I was a poor “Arab redneck” (never mind the fact that Iranians are Persian, not Arab).

Where #ImFrom: Fear and forgiveness

By Jason Duaine Hahn

I was a constant target for gangs in the Los Angeles–area neighborhoods where I grew up. Older teenagers bullied me at school, on the way to the market and outside my home. And each time, regardless if they came from…

Where #ImFrom: Real-life aliens

By Matthew Claiborne

I was 10 years old when someone first asked me, “Where are you from?” The incident took place in a tiny Louisiana river town. I was playing in a city league basketball league and my predominantly black team found ourselves…