By Ami Shah
I moved to North Carolina in 1976: the bicentennial, America was 200 years old! The country of dreams, hope.
Moving to the south was a bit of a culture shock.
In 7th grade I remember Ku Klux Klan rallies in my town of Salisbury. The white hoods did not seem to faze my classmates, as their dads and uncles were members of the KKK. Being naive, I never thought the KKK were targeting me, the brown kid. I was the smart kid. One of the two brown kids in my school, the other one was an Afghan boy, also very smart.
A few years later in 1979, the unthinkable happened. Iran’s government was overthrown, and over 53 Americans were held captive in the us embassy in Tehran for over a year. The Shah (king) of Iran was exiled. Now I was not Iranian, nor had I ever been to Persia, but my surname was Shah. It was easy to interpret this last name with being Iranian. I remember students thinking I, an immature, naive 10th grader as somehow being responsible for the hostage crisis. My smart friends knew this was in no way mine or my family’s fault. Regardless, the hostage crisis was a time of stress and uncertainty, not only for all Americans, but especially brown kids.
Thank you for sharing! One of my friends (Stewart, from Boy Scouts even....) was in Iran at the time of the revolution. His father was working for Bell Helicopters. When he left we'd given him a t-shirt saying "Iran away". He and his family got out early, his dad stayed a bit longer. As for the KKK - yikes - one classmate (9th grade, before NCSSM) asked me to join; I thought he was kidding. Then a local cross-burning was reported in the newspaper. I can only apologize for my neighbors, and tell you that I, for one, am glad you are here in the USA with us!
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