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Four years after arriving
in the United States,

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like any typical 16-year-old,

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I went to get my driver's permit.

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After I showed the clerk
my immigration papers, my green card,

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she told me it was fake.

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"Don't come back here again," she said.

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That's how I found out
I was in America illegally.

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And I'm still here illegally.

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I'm a journalist and filmmaker.

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I live in stories.

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And what I've learned

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that what most people
don't understand about immigration

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is what they don't understand
about themselves:

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their families' old migration stories
and the processes they had to go through

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before green cards and walls even existed,

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or what shaped their understanding
of citizenship itself.

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I was born in the Philippines.

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When I was 12, my mother sent me
to live with her parents,

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my grandparents,

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or, as we say in Tagalog, Lolo and lola.

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Lolo's name was Teofilo.

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When he legally emigrated to America
and became a naturalized citizen,

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he changed his name from Teofilo to Ted,

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after Ted Danson
from the TV show "Cheers."

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Can't get any more American than that.

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Lolo's favorite song
was Frank Sinatra's "My Way,"

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and when it came to figuring out
how to get his only grandson, me,

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to America,

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he decided to do it his way.

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According to Lolo, there was no easy
and simple way to get me here,

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so Lolo saved up 4,500 dollars --

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that's a lot of money for a security guard

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who made no more than
eight dollars an hour --

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to pay for the fake green card

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and for a smuggler to bring me to the US.

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So that's how I got here.

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I can't tell you how many times
people tell me that their ancestors

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came to America "the right way,"

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to which I remind them,

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America's definition of "the right way"

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has been changing ever since
the first ship of settlers dropped anchor.

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America as we know it
is more than a piece of land,

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particularly because the land that now
makes up the United States of America

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used to belong to other people
in other countries.

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America as we know it is also
more than a nation of immigrants.

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There are two groups of Americans
who are not immigrants:

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Native Americans, who were
indigenous to this land

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and who were killed in acts of genocide;

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and African Americans,
who were kidnapped, shipped and enslaved

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to build this country.

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America is, above all, an idea,

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however unrealized and imperfect,

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one that only exists because
the first settlers came here freely

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without worry of citizenship.

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So, where did you come from?

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How did you get here?

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Who paid?

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All across America,
in front of diverse audiences --

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conservatives and progressives,

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high school students
and senior citizens --

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I've asked those questions.

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As a person of color,
I always get asked where I'm from,

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as in, "Where are you from from?"

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So I've asked white people
where they're from from, too.

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After asking a student
at the University of Georgia

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where he was from,

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he said, "I'm American."

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"I know," I said,
"but where are you from?"

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"I'm white," he replied.

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"But white is not a country," I said.

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"Where are your ancestors from?"

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When he replied with a shrug,

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I said,

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"Well, where did you come from?

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How did you get here? Who paid?"

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He couldn't answer.

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I don't think you can talk
about America as America

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without answering those
three core questions.

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Immigration is America's lifeline,

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how this country has
replenished itself for centuries,

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from the settlers and the revolutionaries
who populated the original 13 colonies

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to the millions of immigrants,
predominantly from Europe,

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who relentlessly colonized this land.

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Even though Native Americans
were already here

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and had their own tribal identities
and ideas about citizenship,

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they were not considered US citizens
until the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act.

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The landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act
that Black Americans fought for

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inspired the 1965
Immigration and Nationality Act,

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which ended America's
race-based exclusionary system

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that had lasted for 40 years.

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I could go on and on here,

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but my point, my larger point, is this:

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How much do any of us,

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whether immigrants
of the past or the present,

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know of these crucial parts
of American history?

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How much of this history makes up
the actual US citizenship test?

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Have you ever seen it?

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It's a mostly oral test,

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and government officers ask applicants
up to 10 of the 100 questions.

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To pass, applicants must get
at least six answers right.

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I looked at the test recently,

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and I was aghast at the questions posed

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and what constitutes acceptable answers
to the glaring omissions.

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There's a question about
the Statue of Liberty, where it is.

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There's no question about Ellis Island,

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about the United States
as an immigrant nation,

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and the countless anti-immigrant
laws that were passed.

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There's nothing about
Native American history.

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There's a question about
what Martin Luther King, Jr. did,

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but largely, there's inadequate
and irresponsible contexts

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about African Americans.

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Here's an example.

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Question number 74
under the American history section

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asks applicants to "name one problem
that led to the Civil War."

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There are three acceptable answers:

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slavery,

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states' rights,

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economic reasons.

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Did my Lola and Lolo get that question?

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If they did get the question,

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do they even understand
the history behind it?

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How about my uncles
and aunties and cousins

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and millions of other immigrants
who had to take that test

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to become Americans?

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What do immigrants know
about America before we get here?

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What kind of citizenship
are we applying for?

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And is that the same kind of citizenship
we actually want to be a part of?

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Come to think of it --
I've been thinking a lot about this --

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what does dignified citizenship look like?

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How can I ask for it when I
just arrived here 26 years ago,

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when Black and Native people

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who have been here in America
for hundreds of years

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are still waiting for theirs?

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One of my favorite writers
is Toni Morrison.

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In 1996, a year before I found out
I was in the country illegally,

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my eighth-grade class was assigned
to read "The Bluest Eye,"

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Morrison's first book.

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Instantly, the book challenged me
to ask hard questions.

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Why does Pecola Breedlove,

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this young Black girl
at the center of the book,

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why did she want blue eyes?

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Who told her to want it?

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Why did she believe them?

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Morrison said she wrote the book
to illustrate what happens

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when a person surrenders
to what she called "the master narrative."

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"Definitions," Morrison said,
"belong to the definers, not the defined."

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Once I realized that I was here illegally,

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I convinced myself that if I was not
a legal citizen by birth or by law,

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another kind of citizenship was possible.

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Citizenship as participation:

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I engage.

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I engage with all kinds of Americans,
even Americans who don't want me here.

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Citizenship as contribution:

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I give back to my community
in whatever ways I can.

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As an undocumented entrepreneur --
and yes, there is such a thing --

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I've employed many US citizens.

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Citizenship as education:

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We can't wait for others
to educate us about the past

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and how we got to this present.

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We have to educate
ourselves and our circles.

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Citizenship as something
greater than myself:

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We are, I think,
individually and collectively,

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rewriting the master narrative of America.

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The people who were once defined
are now doing the defining.

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They're asking the questions
that need to be asked.

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A core part of that redefinition

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is how we define
not only who is an American

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but what constitutes citizenship.

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Which, to me, is our
responsibility to each other.

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So consider your own personal narrative

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and ask yourself:

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Where did you come from?

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How did you get here?

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Who paid?