9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When I was a child,[br]I knew I had superpowers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's right.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I thought I was absolutely amazing[br]because I could understand

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and relate to the feelings[br]of brown people, like my grandfather,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a conservative Muslim guy.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And also, I could understand[br]my Afghan mother, my Pakistani father,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not so religious but[br]laid-back, fairly liberal.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And of course, I could understand[br]and relate to the feelings of white people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The white Norwegians of my country.[br]You know, white, brown, whatever,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I loved them all. I understood them all,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
even if they didn't always[br]understand each other,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they were all my people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My father, though,[br]was always really worried.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He kept saying that[br]even with the best education,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was not going to get a fair shake.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would still face discrimination,[br]according to him, and that they only way

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to be accepted by white people[br]would be to become famous.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now mind you, he had this conversation[br]with me when I was seven-years-old.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So while I'm seven-years-old,[br]he said, look,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so its either got to be sports,[br]or its got to be music.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He didn't know anything about sports --[br]bless him -- so it was music.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So when I was seven-years-old,[br]he gathered all my toys, all my dolls,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and he threw them all away.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In exchange, he gave me a crappy little[br]Casio keyboard and singing lessons.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He forced me, basically, to practice[br]for hours and hours every single day.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Very quickly, he also had me performing[br]for larger and larger audiences,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and bizarrely, I became almost[br]a kind of poster child

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for Norwegian multi-culturalism.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I felt very proud, of course.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Even the newspapers were starting[br]to write nice things about brown people,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so I could feel that[br]my superpower was growing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So when I was 12-years-old,[br]walking home from school,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I took a little detour[br]because I wanted to buy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
my favorite sweets called Salty Feets.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I know they sound kind of awful,[br]but I absolutely love them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're basically these little salty[br]licorice bits in the shape of feet.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And now that I say it out loud,[br]I realize how terrible that sounds,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but be that as it may,[br]I absolutely love them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So on my way into the store,[br]there was this grown white guy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the doorway blocking my way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So I tried to walk around him,[br]and as I did that, he stopped me

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and he was staring at me,[br]and he spit in my face,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and he said, get out of my way[br]you little black bitch,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you little Paki bitch,[br]go back home where you came from.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was absolutely horrified.[br]I was staring at him.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was too afraid to wipe[br]the spit off my face,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
even as it was mixing with my tears.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I remember looking around,[br]hoping that any minute now,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a grown-up is going to come [br]and make this guy stop.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But instead, people kept hurrying past me[br]and pretended not to see me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was very confused[br]because I was thinking,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
well, my white people, come on![br]Where are they? What's going on?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How come they're not[br]coming and rescuing me?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, needless to say,[br]I didn't buy the sweets.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I just ran home as fast as I could.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Things were still okay, though, I thought.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As time went on, the more successful[br]I became, I eventually started attracting

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
harassment from brown people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Some men in my