My Dad said “Jap”. Everyone blushed.
Malcolm Gin, Berkeley, CA. My Dad is Chinese and 86 years old. He was stationed in the Pacific Theater during World War II, fighting on...
Turns out my view is skewed
David Turner, Berkeley, CA I’m an optimistic person, I want to believe things are better and getting better still – but that’s a perspective that...
Women tell hidden mixed heritage story.
Jodi Su Tharan, Berkeley, CA. My family is Jewish, Apache Chiricahua, additional hidden tribes that still remained unnamed after years of research, Welsh, Scots, Irish,...
You’re Indian; do you speak Hindu?
Poonam Dreyfus-Pai, Berkeley, CA. It wasn’t easy to choose just one sentence (6 words, no less) to summarize the constant negotiation between frustration and a...
Are you planning to go home?
Lee Hwang Berkeley, CA Ironically, it was a black woman in Atlanta that said this to me. She was perfectly innocent and sincere. She had...
Deconstruct race but don’t forget history.
Carol Hodgspeth, Berkeley, CA. Race is important to talk about, but we can’t be boxed in by it. Be critical!
Scrub brown skin with whitening soap.
Kate Blanco, Berkeley, CA. Filipinos and Filipino-Americans tend to have an obsession with “whiteness”. I was once told as a young kid to use whitening...
All Power to the People!
Judy Gumbo Albert Berkeley, CA I learned this slogan directly from Kathleen & Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale & Emory Douglas. Eldridge used to call my...
Black family history hard to uncover
Chadwick Campbell Berkeley, CA Being black and from Louisiana, searching for my family past my great grandparents is very difficult. Finding people who were, literally,...
Kids in behavior class all black.
Michelle Baird Berkeley, CA My daughter is in a fairly diverse elementary school. She is African-American, I am white. She commented one day on the...
Expectation that I must be billingual
Helen Rodrigues Berkeley, CA I am second generation Mexican American, in a family that now extends 4 generations. I was raised in an English Speaking...
