Dave Lawrence,
Mechanicsville, VA
For most of my life, when I was asked my race, I was forced to choose just one — and I chose the race I mostly closely resembled: white. Back then, I had to choose carefully. My mom and I had been threatened with death in the early 1960’s for not being white enough. What I didn’t know for most of those years, the state of Louisiana had chosen a different race for me, and, if it had taken sufficient interest in me, could have forced me to identify as that race. In this century I’ve faced discrimination from every community I should be a part of: not white enough to be white, not Chinese enough to be Chinese; not Black enough to be Black. So now, every time I’m forced to pick just one, I just opt out.
