17. Dezember 2025 – fbs (youtube)
Our next “Culture Vultures” conversation explores a deeply human question: How do we choose the environment we want to live in? And more specifically: What guides that choice when our childhood experiences were shaped by standing out?
For Florence, this question has always carried a special resonance. As a child growing up in Germany, she always was “the Black child” in an exclusively white environment – highly visible, instantly different. So, as an adult – what mattered most when deciding where to live? Was it the desire to blend in a little more, to feel less exposed, perhaps less vulnerable to exclusion or racism? Or would she choose a place where she could stand out unapologetically, embracing her distinctiveness?
Florence’s choice was guided by something much more intuitive and grounded: she gravitated, quite naturally, towards a community that resembled the world she grew up in – predominantly white. Not out of avoidance, not out of a wish to disappear, but because that environment felt familiar. It offered continuity, coherence and – ironically and beautifully – a sense of belonging.
Florence chose the area she lives in based on felt identity. On what resonated. On where her roots had grown. Today, she feels fully at home where she is. Not because she blends in, and not because she stands out – but because the environment mirrors the sense of place she has always carried within her. If you have ever chosen the place you live: What shaped that choice? Were you looking to blend in, to connect – or to find people who felt familiar? And what, for you, created that feeling of belonging?
More about Bettina Andresen Guimarães: https://www.authenticwow.com/bettina-a-g/