Sophomore Ellison Lutzler, a student of mixed descent, has learned valuable lessons from the challenges faced by his Ethiopian grandmother and biracial mother. Through these family experiences, Lutzeler has developed a perspective on identity and belonging. 

Lutzeler’s grandmother, Sine Berhanu, was born in 1942. She was born in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. She moved to the US in the summer of 1966 and married in 1968. At the time, interracial marriages were fairly uncommon, and her parents were not happy that she chose an American husband. 

They had a holy fit. My father took all my pictures off the wall and said, ‘She is dead. She does not exist.’ That was sad. They refused to come to my wedding. My mother would have come, but he wouldn’t let her,” Berhanu said.

It was not until years later that her parents could forgive her. Berhanu then saw struggles more when moving to a new continent.

Fast-forward a few decades, and here we are. Lutzeler does not speak Ethiopian like his grandmother, and his mother, who is half-Ethiopian, cannot speak Amharic.

“At parties that my grandma hosts, everyone is speaking Amharic, and everyone has way darker skin [than] me. I don’t fit in super well, and many people don’t even know I’m related to my grandma,” Lutzler said. “So they try to speak to me in Amharic sometimes, which is a disaster.”

Despite being mixed, Lutzler passes as a white person and does not face the level of discrimination that his mother and grandmother do. 

Lutzeler is interested in learning more about Ethiopian culture and would like to visit Ethiopia someday to connect with it more. 

“We [eat] Ethiopian food, and we also eat German food. It’s not super blended together, but we still all do the things together. Even though my dad’s German doesn’t really fit in, [and] neither do I.”