Dear ACOMS Members:
Almost every Sunday, I make a curry. Whether it’s a chicken, fish, or vegetable curry, I am keen on the ritual of sautéing onions with curry powder, adding fresh tomatoes, and eating the dish over a bed of rice or with a naan bread. My husband and son know that Sundays are reserved for Indian cuisine. Begrudgingly, my son is not a fan of my curries, but nonetheless, I still prepare and enjoy them — and he eats them!
I mention this personal ritual because I believe it represents what belonging — this issue’s theme — can mean. I am a Punjabi woman. I was raised Sikh. My father sent my siblings and I to Sunday school to learn about our language and culture so we would never lose that critical component of our identities. For families like mine, whose nationality and ethnicity do not match, there is a distinct symbiosis between becoming acclimated to your environment and infusing it with the parts of your culture that are not always visibly present. I speak with a London accent and yet, when people first glance at me, they see Indian features and brown skin. In the previous sentence, what takes precedence? The nationality or the ethnicity?
I offer that it is neither and it is both. Belonging is not about defining what should take precedence. It is about understanding that there is a reflexive space where every component of our identities can exist without the compromise or detriment of each other. I am British and American, but I am also Indian.
Making curry every Sunday is not about simply needing food prepared for the week ahead. Making curry is about remembering that, despite living in the United States, I am still a proud Indian. I needn’t choose between Westernized ideals and traditions and my Indian culture, because I am distinctly both. To ask which community I belong to negates the fact that I am an intersectional person.
And I think this conversation is especially poignant as we enter the holiday season. To all those reading this editorial, I hope that you remember that the holidays are not about fulfilling expectations and requirements of what the season demands. There is no “right” Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. There is no “correct” way to celebrate the holidays. What matters is that you wholeheartedly support and appreciate all aspects of your intersectional identities in a time that praises love, support and community. Find belonging in the traditions and subsequent divergences and practice the art of creating meaning through intersectionality, in whatever way that means to you.
I will continue to make my curry every Sunday, and I look forward to learning about the various ways you endow your life with the cultural significance that curry holds for me.
In this issue, we look to see how being a minority has shaped the lives of other OMS surgeons. Dr. Fisher discusses her gender-affirmation surgery and how that helps her patients belong. We review what belonging to ACOMS means, and we introduce you to your president and regents.
Jasjit K. Dillon, MBBS, DDS, FDSRCS, FACS
Acknowledgment — Arjan Dillon for his creative input.