Madilyn Hays,
Holland, MI.

Me and my siblings are from all different ethnic backgrounds. I’m blond haired, blue eyed and full white. While my brother and sister are both of African American background, their great grand father was actually Louis Armstrong. And then my last two brothers are Puerto Rican. We all have the same mom. All 5 of us. Yet every time someone sees my family, or notices my sisters hair or all my brother’s brown eyes, their first reaction is

“Wow! Are they Adopted?”
To which I respond “No”
“Oh….So were You adopted?”
“No. We all have the same mom”
“How does that work?”

Once a conversation like this starts out it can get awkward very fast. I just wish people were more exposed to multi racial families. Not many seem to understand or even fully accept that I have a beautifully mixed family. And it hurts, when someone points out that I’m white, so I must be racist or something. When they don’t understand that I love my siblings so much, that discriminating over skin color is not an option for me, and never has been. It’s how I was raised and what I believe. I will forever be proud of my mixed family, But It’d be nice if it was accepted without the harsh comments and questions.