“When I was 12 we went to visit my Dad’s family in Senegal. It was a gender thing from the beginning. My Dad and my brother Charlie arrived in Senegal a week earlier and Charlie had visited many times before. And still, everyone in the house was freaking out over my little brother Charlie. It felt to me like I was irrelevant. I was shy and their was a language barrier but still I felt so negated and small because I was not the male next of kin. I thought to myself “ Did I do something wrong? Why don’t they love me?” I witnessed so much sexism there. The girls cooking and the boys playing. My uncles in Senegal send Charlie gifts but no one is itching to give me anything. My brother loves Senegal while I feel my relationship with Senegal is fractured.” Jasmine Niang is a college Freshman.