Alison Chalker
Los Altos, CA
The US government counts middle easterners and north Africans as white, so that’s how i see myself, i suppose. personally, I’m fair — white passing, at the very least — but sometimes i look at my family and friends and i just think “they’re not benefiting from privilege, here. the world does not see them as white.”
i don’t know what the right answer is as to who should be officially considered “of color.” i couldn’t claim it; it would feel too much like coopting someone else’s experience. but in a time when being middle eastern carries so much automatic “othering” and strife, i can’t help but wonder if we’re all checking the wrong box.
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