Nerd In Residence: Brown In America, MIA And Black Lives Matter

***Editor’s note: In April of 2016, MIA made some critical comments about the Black Lives Matter movement. As she was recently announced as the headliner for the AfroPunk UK Festival, the organizers faced backlash for making her the face of the event. Consequently, her involvement is currently up in the air.*** I don’t remember the first time that I saw MIA, but I remember being in complete awe of her. I was in middle school when September 11th happened. Before, I had been an ambiguous brown; I confused people. In second grade an older girl came up to me and asked what color I was. When I didn’t have an answer, she asked “Are you black, or are you white?” I wasn’t either. I didn’t know what I was, other than Pakistani and Kashmiri, foreign places where I didn’t grow up. Everyone spoke Spanish to me as they passed on the street, and I fumbled words back to them. After September 11th, everything changed. My classmates followed me around the park with bottles in their fists. The question “where are you from” shadowed me everywhere I went. I could hear the bite, the threat behind it. I overheard my friends answering on my behalf to strangers when they thought I wasn’t listening — yeah, she’s from there, but she’s okay. She’s not a bad one. September 11th was when I realized that I wasn’t American in the eyes of America and that I probably never would be. But if I wasn’t American, then what was I? I spent so much time in my childhood trying to convince my peers I wasn’t a FOB, t…