This paper seeks to serve as a preliminary step towards filling a gap within cultural anthropological scholarship on the Afghan diaspora, particularly the performativity of belonging and the constitution of the diasporic subject. It is also a reaction to mainstream American media's recent depiction of the social experiences of the Afghan diaspora in the U.S. as monolithic and necessarily defined by a primordial connection to Afghanistan. The voices of the children of Afghan immigrants provide a window into expressions of oneself as an "Afghan" that are not always based on an organically-perceived connection to Afghanistan and its cultural productions, but rather on more complex, diverse rubrics that differ with individual and family histories. This paper is based on a three-month ethnographic study I have conducted of young adult Afghan-Americans whose parents emigrated from Afghanistan and settled in various parts of New York shortly following the beginning of the Afghan-Soviet War (1979-1989). Through an analysis of their personal accounts, anchored in theoretical literature on the diasporic subject and on the performance of different identities in everyday life, the paper offers initial insight into the following questions: how do young adult Afghan-Americans articulate the criteria that constitute someone as "being Afghan"; in what social spaces and in the midst of what kinds of references to family histories and historical discourses of Afghanistan do these ideas become more malleable to one individuali; and how is "being Afghan" affirmed through its juxtaposition with other ethnicized and racialized groups within New York as a transnational spacen The small pool of people observed speak to these questions in the following ways: 1. There exists a notion of degrees of "Afghanness" and "being in tune" with Afghan cultural norms and these rubrics, which are measured against an ideal standard for "being Afghan," oscillate in spaces where different types of social capital is valued; 2. Calling oneself "Afghan" can be legitimized, to some, by cultivating a knowledge of Afghanistan's history and the performance of Afghan cultural productions; 3. Cultivating a knowledge of Afghan cultural productions is, oftentimes, viewed as a return to one's true identity and moving away an abandonment of one's true self; and 4. Degrees of "Afghanness" are sometimes affirmed in opposition to other racialized or ethnicized identities. These conclusions contribute to the literature on the formation of the transnational diasporic subject and might prompt a greater probing of media representations of other diasporas' social experiences.