Susan, Boulder, CO. I’ve been going through something of an identity crisis recently. I’m 31, of mixed race (1/2 Mexican and 1/2 a mix of European). Although my mom was born in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish, I wasn’t raised much in the culture because I grew up on an Air Force Base in […]
Rochelle, Seattle, WA.
Janine Stroebel, South Africa. I love the initiative. South Africa could do with with a little of this…
Samantha Ciena Potsdam, NY
Luc Charwin Salem, OR It may be trite and unoriginal to use someone else’s words. However, the lyrics of that song brought this topic into focus for me. In grade school a friend’s father did not allow David and I to share the experience of a week-long school camping trip. David was one of several […]
James Michael Rogers Houston, TX I was at my neighborhood park one morning jogging, and I saw three white women walking abreast in one direction, and a black woman coming towards them in the opposite direction. The white women ignored the black woman and no one stepped back to let the black lady pass, and […]
John Moore We are all one and should be treating each other that way.
Katherine Atlanta, GA I am not responsible for the actions of people one hundred and fifty years ago who enslaved an entire race. The institution of slavery is a horrific part of American History, and it was a heinous crime against African Americans. Because of that institution, there is racism alive and around still and […]
Megan Hoban, Ridgefield, CT. Being a caucasian woman in the US I see sexual assault every day. I am proud to be who I am and I am proud of my body. With that being said I refuse to be looked at as an object or treated with any less respect because I am a […]
Carniesha Kwashie, Philadelphia, PA. This is in response to my white staffer and the racism she sees I endure as we work on an project that states Racial Equity is a priority.
Lewis Hernandez, Milwaukee, WI. White people, raped, murdered and stole this country from the American Indian. Now it’s one America. One white. One Black. One rich. One poor. Separate and unequal. Separate and unjust. The American Indian has been fighting terrorism since 1491 when Caucasians first came to their country.
Mekdelawit, San Francsico, CA. I have faith that people mean well; no one wants to hurt another human being for no reason. That’s a liberal belief. However, reality fails me at times and I lose hope. The reality is, many are willing to step on others to get to the top, but I believe it’s […]
Anita, Fort Washington, MD. I used to think inter-marriage would remedy it but now I think human nature is such that we will simply find new ridiculous criteria for exclusion.
Kelly O’Brien Pruitt, Houston, TX. I love living in a multicultural City. I love seeing different sizes and shapes and colors, different combinations of ethnic groups. To me this is what America looks like. I want to tell every white person who thinks that America belongs to them is that we came from Europe and […]
Luis E. Pacheco, Ceiba, Puerto Rico. As a Puerto Rican in my mid-60s, who has lived two-thirds of his life in the Continental USA, it’s become more and more evident to me that many white folk are really scared of becoming members of a ‘minority’ group (a notion we have to change; it really is […]
Nathan Hansen, Yucipa, CA. CBU HIS311
Patricia Linderman, Mexico. I’m the spouse of a US diplomat, and we have lived in four Latin American countries for a total of 11 years. We have sometimes seen strong discrimination and heard ugly remarks against people in these societies with darker skin color. It is definitely not just a U.S. and European problem. Besides […]
Juanita, Salt Lake City, UT.
Sharon Larios, San Diego, CA.
Dana Lee Sterbens, Chicago, IL. Discrimination in not only for people of color. We all discriminate against “other” or “the unknown”. I have experienced racism as a white female, in my lifetime. We need to accept that we all have bias and everyone needs to pay attention to it.
Helen Alzuhairi, Roseville, MI.
Rachel Brinson, Centennial, CO. People always want to put me in a box and assume what I find offensive, what I find familiar, and how I choose to see myself and others. No one chooses to see human first, identity second. I will forever be explaining that the body given to me is arbitrary, and […]
Nice White Lady, San Francisco, CA. I’m a white mom to a brown daughter who can’t shake the shame and embarrassment that stems from a long history of white women instigating and being complicit in violence against Black people. When people see me, they see someone who is too fragile, too protected, too privileged, too […]
Charlie Zimmerman, Canon City, CO.
Anne Fashauer, Philo, CA. Because I’m a white female.
Jason, Kansas City, MO, . Awesome project.
Chris Porter Seattle, WA History and TV have provided many roles, mostly negative, for black males. Our society rarely sees black men in the role of care taker or nurse, providing nursing care and in the role of leader particularly in a female dominated profession. It has been my life’s mission to tear down that […]
What are you?, AL. Olive skinned with dark hair. People would ask if my dad was the milk man. Black kids would ask if I was Jewish. I don’t actually know…..but why should it matter?
Kit Carlson, East Lansing, MI.
D Maduli-Williams Submitted via Twitter: @dmaduliwilliams
Tara Hill St. Louis, MO
Submitted via Twitter: @SugaBabe_14
Noelle Kim, South Korea. I have a mixed race baby. Korean-American. I worry about her and how others will treat her.
Catherine Vance Agrella, Asheville, NC. I’m white, and by definition am associated with some of the worst perpetrators of racism. But I also come from deep Appalachian Scots-Irish roots and have a clear ethnic identity. I do know what it feels like to be mocked for my speech, or thought of as a dumb hillbilly, […]
Jalen Dejarnette, Detroit, MI.
Lauren McEnerney, Norfolk, VA. ODU
Jim Glazar, Goodyear, AZ. I think it is sad that white Americans think that all minorities will treat whites the way that whites have treated all minorities. The Golden Rule is the way we should live our lives.
Ivan Vazquez, Sacramento, CA. Although I was born and raised in San Diego, CA ; I grew up in a household that comprised of both the English and Spanish language, about 60% English and 40% Spanish. I am a child of second-generation immigrants and even though I received my entire education in English, I came […]
Kathleen Soto, El Cerrito, CA. I got my profile from Ancestry.com and it showed my ancestors came from 14 different countries. What could be more American than that?
Aaron Fitzgerald, Australia. It is OK to be white, we are NOT responsible for all the problems that the POC world faces; that the Jewish-run, liberal, left wing, Marxist media would have you believe. All races have been responsible for genocide, likewise all races have been victims of genocide, even white people, as seen in […]
Jasmine Baker East Lansing, MI Growing up I was placed in the gifted and talented program in my elementary school. I learned to speak what this society refers to as “proper English.” Because of that, many Black students would tease me and tell me that I’m black, stop talking like a white girl. What does […]
Katherine Suszczewicz USA When you don’t know, your imagination will choose to make something up. Over and over again.
Adana, Seattle, WA. I have 2 children. My son looks just like his papa: dark, wavy hair and alabaster skin. My daughter looks like me: golden skin and curly brown hair. When I’m out with my son, I’m asked if I’m his nanny. When I’m out with both kids, I’m asked if they have the […]
John Connell, Boston, MA.
Sally Ann Siegel New York, NY I experience anti-white and anti-Semitism occasionally from black women.
Aisha, Detroit, MI. To be seen or unseen, I’m black but I don’t have to relate to all Africa Americans.
Andrea Sigetich, Bend, OR. I know much about privilege, having done diversity work in major high technology corporations. The important word in my essay is “occasionally.” I give back, I do my share, I work for the betterment of life’s circumstances for those less privileged than me. However, I can go home to my nice […]
Anonymous, Novel Ideas Book Club Baton Rouge, LA. / Washington DC More on Yoshi Hattori
Elle, France. I cannot see them as good people. They have oppressed so many minority groups – historically and to the present day – then they deny that they have ever done anything wrong. Their police kill us and we are always blamed. They are always 100% innocent in their own eyes. I have grown […]
Aiyana Pellegrino, Philadelphia, PA.
Ernest Henson, Longview, TX. African first question Black man’s last
Marci Russell, Durham, NC. I don’t think people understand how serious the racist comments they say are. Even if they’re just joking, It’s hurtful. I wish people would just think before they act. If people just thought about what they are going to say before they say it, I believe the world would change one […]
Bryan Quevedo Moreno Valley, CA California Baptist University It was not until taking CBU HIS311 class that I have learned a lot about race and how some people are completely ignorant to what has happened in American history. The other day I walked into a grocery store to hear a cashier argue with a black […]
Monika L. Brooks Oakland, CA My Son still has to be given the talk about how he has to ignore the people that think he should be “less than” because of what he looks like. He is 12.
Noah J. Walker, Detroit, MI. People find unique people weird and ugly and I just think the opposite.
Katelyn Tsukada Northampton, MA My mother is of Irish and Italian heritage; my father of Japanese descent. Both of my parents were born in the United States as were their parents before them. Both consider themselves to be American as documented by their passports, drivers licenses and birth certificates. My mother and father speak English […]
Auguste Budhram, USA. Anyone who has ever been in the minority remembers the first time a word knocked the wind out of them. As a child, my first time came packaged in a rhyme known by everyone– making the blow feel conspiratorial and that much worse. The rhyme is part of every 10 year- old’s […]
Ellis Clark, Spain. As a seventeen-year-old black male, my view to race has been cushioned by growing up in a comfortable, yet politically aware household. While I knew racism existed, it rarely touched me growing up, and when it did, it was the microagressive type. Real issues with race didn’t begin to pop up for […]
Tony Vu, Minneapolis, MN.
Jaime Phelps, Philomath, OR. This is a great idea. Thanks for your efforts.
Brian Davis, Ph.D., Holland, MI. Holland New Tech High School, #newshps
Erica Jameson, Ashland, OR. My parents adopted five muti-racial children, something unheard of in the rural mountain town we lived in. Between being confused about being different, to occasional thoughtless racism, the line “You can pass [for white]” still makes me uneasy. Does this mean that I should want to? I still don’t know.
Rachel Gonzales Pottstown, PA I’m the whitest woman who ever lived (except in the summer, when I’m the sunburniest woman who ever lived). He’s half-Mexican by way of California and half-German by way of WWII. Our adopted daughter is part African American, part Italian, part “Caucasian mix” (that’s what it ACTUALLY SAYS in her medical […]
Scotty, Detroit, MI. Race is real. Sometimes, it is also necessary to play the role we are born into. Most of the time, however, we don’t need to look at the world through a racial lens. This causes judgement and suffering because of who we take ourselves to be. What you see, you cannot be. […]
Peter Michael, Zimbabwe. It is annoying and incorrect that when a black person and a white person have a child the child is referred to as black, thereby totally negating and erasing the fact that the child has 50% white genes. Is that not racism in itself? The National Geographic issue on race of April […]
Daniela Miami, FL And yes, it is possible for me not to like baseball and be Latina at the same time!
Georgianna Wong, Topeka, KS. When my son, George Wong was playing baseball, I had a woman tell me how handsome my son was and then asked, “How long have you had him?” It always hurt me when people would think I adopted him even though my last name was Wong. Then I had a good […]
Kristin Christy, Frederick, MD. When my son began high school in the fall of 2011, he chose not to request a locker; preferring instead to wait until he was assigned one as a baseball player in the spring. I admired Chaz’ confidence to be selected to the team, but wondered where he would keep things […]
Louis E. Perego Moreno, New York, NY. All my life, I have been out of more than one box. However, after wrestling with the subject for over 20 years, I have arrived at a point in my journey where my identity is defined by belonging to three worlds: Latino, Gay and USA. Many Hispanics in […]
Gabriella Grange, Plano, TX. Before coming to college, I always thought of myself as a black person. But when I got to college a few years ago, I heard people use the term “people of color” and it boggled me. Even though the term is used to foster solidarity, the term can be used to […]
Dr. Jacqueline Lawrence, Windsor, CA. As a young child, my first memories of blacks in San Francisco were scary, and they weren’t from television. I remember smelling the strong scent of urine in the elevators, hearing moms tell their children to “Get cho ass out of my face” and “Go sit cho ass down” and […]
Sierra Odessa New York City, NY Manhattan
Val’Dionna P., San Francisco, CA. Throughout the years it has been a bit difficult to understand the many emotions and stereotypes being of color and mixed. It is important to understand that how one is raised growing up in a complex world that continues to critique someone on the features or melancholy of their skin […]
Olivia Loesch, SHAKOPEE, MN. I always feel bad when I am trying to work at Target and go through my day when I see someone being racial to a guest. I try to step in but typically the white person makes me help them instead. I want to help all of those around me in […]
Grsteena Khoshaba, Warren, MI. I am a Middle Eastern girl and I just have one question. Where am I? Why is it whenever I have to fill out an official document that asks for my race, Middle Eastern is not an option? We are forced to bubble “White” when we’re not really white.
Katie Gray, Lees Summit, MO.
Ibrahim Khazzaka, Brooklyn, NY.
MARK PLISKA, San Diego, CA. The lion (white men) wrote our history, now its prey’s (people of color) time to write the history
Alfred Eric Richner Prieto, Duluth, GA. 14% and Iberian, Dominican,, Swiss, Scandinavian. We are all in this world together.
Beatriz McConnie Zapater, Jamaica Plain, MA. I am Puerto Rican with white, indigenous, Spanish, and African ancestry. When I hear that I do not look Puerto Rican, I ask the person, “How many Puerto Ricans do you know?”.
Emery Nicoletti, Tucson, AZ. As a business owner, I voiced hundred of my own commercials and also had a weekend radio show. When I would meet listeners in person, I often heard either, “I pictured you so different,” or, ‘You sound so white on the radio.” I imagine they probably had no idea that some […]
David Thomas, Pasadena, MD. White Grandfather to two African American grandsons, what a world we have created for them. I loath the day they realize racism exists and have to explain why.
Tess, Melbourne, FL. Recently I have had to face the fact that my very dark skin is indeed the first thing most people notice about me. The fact that I’m short/tall, healthy/not healthy, sad/happy, age and what not seem to follow way after my dark skin has introduced me to the world. I love to […]
Dan Creamer, Sandpoint, ID. I grew up in the Jim Crow South. Being white I always felt both guilty and angry about the way black people were treated. In the Marine Corps, I accepted a bottle of wine from a black Marine and drank from it without wiping off the bottle or my mouth and […]
Derrick Carter, Charlottesville, VA. Trying to understand and teach my biracial children and how they can make the future better for every race.
Christina B. Henderson, Riverside, CA. Why is a Black person speaking up for themselves in a situation when customer service has been less than satisfactory stereotyped as being an angry Black woman/man? Shout out to CBU HIS311.
Joanna Baker Submitted via: NPR’s Talk of the Nation
Steven Stawarz, Oak Brook, IL.
Jackson Bates, White Oak, TX.
Mike Tracy, Oakland, CA. When I was 3 or 4 I asked my parents to put brown sugar on my oatmeal so I could grow up to be a running back like Jim Brown or Floyd Little.
Tony Williams, Detroit, MI. Change in America is slow. I find it disheartening to witness the incarceration of African American men at this current level. The battle begins after the release from jail or prison. A criminal record is just slavery by another name.
Brisa Gardiner, Canada I am very confused about my identity and what parts of my background are “mine to use”. I was born in Mexico and lived there for my toddler years but I am only 25% Latin, with the rest being Scottish and Swiss. My mother, who is half Guatemalan, grew up in Guatemala, […]
Autumn Rainey, Indianapolis, IN. I remember growing up in a mostly Caucasian area, and I was told this often. What was likely meant as a compliment to me, became quite an insult as I got older. I wish more people could give a compliment, without qualifying it.
Franklin Oliver, Submitted via Twitter: @FOLIVER4U.
Richard A. Cummings, Chicago, IL.
Nkrumah, Hattiesburg, MS. The term “White privilege” is not about blame. It is about getting people to recognize that there are some advantages to not being a person of color. For example a White man doesn’t have to worry about being labeled the “angry black man” if he gets upset in a public setting.
Nobody, Durham, NC. I would change my race to anything non-black if I could. I don’t think white people understand how limiting it is to only be seen as a color and not as a person. When you’re black you can be the Scary Black Person, the Angry Black Man/Woman, the Thug, the Smart/Articulate Black […]
Diana Varney Salt Lake City, UT
Har Simran Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles, CA. Since I started wearing mostly white clothes along with my practice of Sikhism, it has become glaringly clear that I am not white — or rather, that my skin is far from white. I am aware that I still experience much white privilege.
Peter Denzin, Greeley, CO. Since retirement, I’ve taught English as a Second Language classes for 11 years. My classes are made up of immigrants and refugees of all colors and faiths from all parts of the globe speaking a variety of native languages. In my classroom, we are a learning community of love and mutual […]
