When I’m asked by my non-Brown friends why I don’t do yoga or wear shawls more often, I always say I don’t want to be “that brown girl who does brown things.” There’s a self-consciousness and a deep desire to belong and fit in that come with being different (especially in this political climate). I worry that doing “brown” things will crowd out the part of my identity and personality that are more western. And I know, I know… I shouldn’t care what people think, but there’s so much more to me than being a one-dimensional stand-in for a brown girl.

So, in the interest of keeping something light-hearted on this blog, there will be a series of brief posts on doing brown things (BGDBT) like yoga, having other brown friends, speaking Hindi, studying the motherland, etc.

This is meant to be humorous and self-deprecating, so please do your best to refrain from psychoanalyzing me and diagnosing me with a chronic case of self-hatred. My death drive isn’t quite that intense.