Jane Orias,
St. Louis, MO
We moved to St. Louis, MO about 6 years ago after living in Hawaii and the west coast. The topic of race and prejudice came up in a dinner conversation with our children; at the time, they were in middle and elementary schools. We were discussing whether or not they had any experience with feeling prejudice or inferior in school because of their skin color and ethnic heritage. We are Filipino-American and we live in a large suburb of St. Louis where the majority of residents are Caucasian. Both kids honestly felt they were equals to their peers and friends. But our eldest, who was probably 11 at the time, acknowledged she was physically different from her classmates and frankly said, “Mom, if I can make an analogy, we are like brown flecks on a white tortilla.”
