Teyawn Watts, Silver Spring, MD, .
I was raised in Southern California and rarely thought about my race and how I was similar or different from my peers. I attended college in Northern California, at a predominately white college. This was the first time I felt like I did not fit in with any race per se. I have and will always be open to having friends from multiple demographics. While in college it was clear that a lot of people are most comfortable with their associations based on race. My openness to all made me feel alienated from the black community and my appearance made it obvious that I did not “belong” to other communities. It should not be so “black” or “white” but its so hard for people to think beyond that. People often think racial bias is between people of different races but I’ve experienced it from my own community and that has always struck me the hardest.
