“Mom, am I black?”
David Denver, CO Four words that chill my heart. We had adopted our biracial son when he was 15 months. Now, at four years old,...
I can count my brown friends.
Liz Hohl Oakland, CA Race is so intrinsically linked and correlated to wealth, education, and power. I frequently consider my surroundings and realize how few...
Hidden minority under my white skin.
Lisa Aragon Duque San Diego, CA Growing up Hispanic from New Mexico, in Hawaii, mistaken for a white girl. I was neither accepted nor rejected....
And I have several black friends!
Christy Berger San Francisco, CA Being non racist in our day to day lives is great, but it is not the same as being anti...
I’m a German Russian Nazi Jew.
Rachel Stahr Bozrah, CT This is my heritage. My maternal grandfather and father are both Pennsylvania Dutch, but my great-grandmother is where things get interesting....
I’m sorry, we don’t hire women
Pam Cunningham Lexington, SC This is what I heard in 1970 in my Senior year at Virginia Tech about to receive my degree in math...
Don’t cry. Mama loves your curls.
Hilary Roberts-King Baltimore, MD Children’s books and Sesame Street make multi-cultural living look so easy. Of course I want my daughters to be proud of...
I hate people I like persons
Barrett Murphy Chicago, IL People en masse are bad, they are obnoxious, racist and worse, think mob mentality. People as individuals are good and decent....
Where’s the box for cultural diversity?
Isabelle Strauss McLean, VA I feel boring when I fill out race and ethnicity on a form – I’m white, nuff said. Or maybe not....
My white spouse thinks he/she understands.
Truman Burbank Saint Paul, MN You can never understand. Unless you have lived it for yourself, and lived through the pain- you will never understand....
Are those boys your biological children?
Wendy Allmendinger North Attleboro, MA I was asked this question far too many times to count when my children were little. I am white, my...
You call friends “boy.” I cannot.
Dan Rinzel Washington DC A memory from my junior high school bus in DC in the early 1980’s.
Appalachian does not always mean “hillbilly”
B. D. R. Huntington, WV While I was born in Appalachia, I am not a West Virginia native. Still I tend to get my dander...
Are you sure you are Black?
Saundra Davis San Francisco, CA Biracial before it was cool…people often refuse to accept that I’m a Black woman…or they assume I would rather be...
