Name: Nicola Akiko Tabata
Pronouns: She/her
Birthplace: New Westminster, Canada
DOB: in 1994
Life Events: Graduated with BA Philosophy and Sociology 2018, Taking MA International Relations/Political Science (2019-present); married 2019
Identify as Japanese Canadian
Whenever I am asked the question “What are you?” I, like many people of colour, have learned that the asker is not inquiring about my nationality or citizenship as someone born in Canada. Rather, they are asking me to classify my “otherness.” Lots of people, including myself to a certain extent, think I look rather racially ambiguous, and so people asking me about my ethnicity often take my “whiteness” as a given. I identity as Japanese Canadian because my friends who are not persons of colour are rarely asked to identify themselves.
