When I returned home from a semester abroad, reverse culture shock hit me hard. As the headlines of Mike Brown’s killing filled the periodicals and news programs, I struggled to understand why countless killings of Black lives were still happening as if we were living during the Jim Crow Era. After being removed from American culture for five months, I found myself struggling to integrate back into society and to get a grip on what the media was showing. Maybe it was because I arrived back to the States with a new conception of what it meant to be Black in America. Living in Argentina, where my racial identifier and country of origin to a certain extent enhanced my experience, I wondered if my other Black peers could have the same experience. In that context, my Black American identity was something that made me unique and brought on its on sets of privileges. However, in my own country of citizenship, I faced unequal access due to systematic injustice. By exiting my home environment, I was able to see a different future for myself and for the Black community.

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