The incident that occurred to me on United airlines prompted me to write this.

People who know me will tell you that I did not migrate from Egypt to the United States to get a Ph.D as you might think. I had actually already quit academia after my M.S., migrated from Egypt to Canada, and started working as a software engineer in beautiful Toronto. Then my best friend  convinced me go back to academia, and the rest is irrelevant history.

A little more than 25 years ago, I was driving my father’s car at midnight going back home, and I was stopped at a random security check point. Police in the oppressive regime of Egypt is well known to humiliate people, with or without reason, just as a show of power.

While waiting, one thought occupied my mind: what if the police officer says: “your license motherf**ker”?

If I just silently comply, which is the “wise” decision, will I live my entire life with a docile eye? Should I respond “here is my license you motherf**ker” and possibly get beaten, dragged to jail or worse?

Nothing happened, but as soon as I passed the check point my decision was already made: I am leaving. I cannot live with this fear. I cannot live like a second class citizen for the rest of my life.

I did not move to North America for education or money. I moved to live like a first-class citizen, under the rule of law.

Immigrants come to this country with many chips on their shoulders. We come to this country and work really hard because we do not want to be a burden to this society. We want to prove to society that we are an added value; from the cherry pickers to the Ph.D.s and all the way in between.

Then there is the language and culture chips. We work hard to learn the language and embrace the culture so we can assimilate and feel accepted.

All we really wanted is a dignified life. All we long for is a sense of acceptance; a sense of belonging. Happiness after all is just that connection to a community.

But no matter how we succeed or assimilate, we are never accepted because our accent never goes away.

It does not matter if we now carry an American passport or have earned highest degrees from American universities. That sense of belonging is never bestowed on us because the melanin behind our skin colors never disappears.

And we live as second class citizens.