У меня есть мысль, и я ее думаю 'I have a thought, and I am thinking it'

  shweta_narayan   has a wonderful entry on US-centric privilege, speakers of English as a second language, and boundary crossers. In part this came as a reaction to the discussion in my approrpiation thread. Comments  closed in shweta's entry and frozen in my original entry, due to spoon shortage (as both of us suffer from chronic invisible illnesses and a few other things on top of that), but this discussion needs to happen.  I hope it gets picked up by people with a somewhat greater amount of spoons.

What I wanted to add to this is that in the SFF community it seems cool at the moment for people to call themselves boundary-crossers, and many might self-identify as such, but I still feel that there is a difference between people who can one day wake up and say "fuck it, I'm tired, I'm going to fit in now" and SUCCEED, and people who had been bouncing around the world due to life circumstances, without much of a physical, linguistic or cultural anchor,  and cannot just wake up one day and decide to fit in - anywhere - with any group, mainstream or marginalized. It is a difference between having a choice and not having a choice.

Here's a sample dialog that is very much a part of my life. Sorry if you've heard it from me before.

"Where are you from?"
"Here..."
"No, where are you really from?"

I get this weekly, sometimes daily, and there is not a single place in the world where my answer of "here" would be accepted. I am starting to embrace this nomadic identity, but nomads in general don't very neatly fit into the western-civ paradigm, especially as it has been informed and shaped by nationalist ideas - and ideals.

 Just a thought.

(comments are open for now, but might get closed again - spoons).