Helped Mom study for her citizenship test
Peg Anderson,
Westborough, MA.
Mom came here after WWll from Newfoundland, Canada. When I was in the fifth grade she became a citizen. I used to quiz her while sitting on the front steps of our house.
I’m not babysitting, they’re my children
Lisa Adams,
Canada
I am a single mother to five children of various cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Strangers tend to assume I’m running a daycare. If they realize the kids are all mine, the next assumption is about my sexual history. Actually, three of the kids are adopted and one of the others is the result of donor insemination. What other people think of me doesn’t bother me, though when the kids were smaller it did sometimes get tiresome always needing to educate people about non-traditional families. What does upset me about the situation is the fact that it’s never been more than a minor annoyance for me because I’m white. Parents of colour who have pale children regularly get accused of kidnapping and have to endure visits from police and child protection, or getting detained at airports and bus terminals, etc. My older kids are reaching the age where they may soon start families of their own. If they someday have children who don’t resemble them, it will be a thousand times more difficult for them than it has been for me.
To fit everywhere and nowhere.
Madison Le Lam Carter
Canada
Chinese/Vietnamese and Irish/Scottish
WHITE SKIN. BLACK/RED HERITAGE. FAMILY PRIDE
Holly White Roddam,
Canada
I am 68 years old. I grew up in a bi-racial family in Nova Scotia, Canada. This was not a common occurrence by any means. But our parents loved us and I had a wonderful childhood.
I didn’t know that my father was Black until one day when I was about 9 years old. I was with my cousin who was 7 years older, at an outdoor skating rink in a small village in Nova Scotia where my grandparents lived. A White woman brought her 3 little Black foster children to skate. Someone must have given her a hard time because she started yelling, “Well if the Hennigars can have a coloured person in their family, so can I!”
I was quite taken aback! WE were the Hennigars!! What was she talking about? I started going through all my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents and I could not find one coloured person in the lot!
I turned to my cousin and asked him, “Who is she talking about??” He looked at me like I had 10 heads! “You’re kidding right?” He laughed in disbelief. “No! I have no idea!” “Your father!” he said with all the amazement in his voice of one who couldn’t believe that anyone could be that dense.
It stunned me! My father?! He wasn’t Black! He was my Dad! I had never noticed that he was “coloured”. I knew his skin was brown and that my sisters and I were varying shades of “tanned” but it meant nothing! What mattered was, he was my Dad!
I do remember, though, the first time I saw him with a tan. I was shocked. I thought he already had one!
I chose my 6 words because my family heritage on my Dad’s side is a very honourable one. My grandfather was the firstborn free in his family. His father and mother and siblings had been slaves in Virginia.
My grandfather went to Acadia University in Canada and was very well-loved. He was a good athlete , had a great singing voice and wonderful sense of humor. He was an amazing person. He was struck by how he was treated like a person, not a colour while at Acadia, and decided to stay in Nova Scotia. He married my grandmother, a native Mi’kmaq teenager and they had 13 children.
The family was very talented in many areas and they went on to accomplish many “firsts”. My grandfather was the second Black man to graduate from Acadia University, becoming a pastor, and had one of the first national radio broadcasts in Canada. During WWII he fought for the right for Blacks to fight for their country and was instrumental in the formation of the No 2 Construction Battalion, an all-Black Regiment. All the officers were White, but my grandfather was their Chaplain. This gave him the rank of Captain making him, Captain Reverand William Andrew White, the first Black officer in the British Empire that we know of.
He was a civil rights mover and shaker in the 1920s and ’30s in Nova Scotia and instilled a sense in his children that they were Not Slaves and could do anything they put their minds to. And so they did.
My Aunt Portia White became Canada’s first international “star” as an opera singer who travelled in North America and beyond, being compared to the State’s Marion Anderson. My Uncles broke colour barriers in politics in Canada and one was awarded the Honour of Canada Medal, the highest honour a civilian can receive. Later my cousin also received it, having served faithfully for over 20 years as Canada’s first Black Senator. And there are many, many other accomplishments that my Dad’s family were known for.
My Dad was on a nationwide television show for 13 years called “Singalong Jubilee” where Anne Murray was discovered and he was recognized across Canada for his contributions in music.
There are many more accolades in my generation and in the extended family. Descendants of my grandfather’s siblings. Overall, it is a huge legacy. I am honoured to be part of this great family of Black and mixed-race relatives. It is a lot to live up to, but I am proud of what my family has accomplished.
I guess it is not surprising then that I have never seen colour to be a barrier and have always thought of myself as Black, even though I have white skin and have lived a very “white life”. I love my Black heritage and have discovered that it goes very well with my Native, Italian and German parts too!
I don’t get followed in stores
Jim Stauffer,
Canada
An Indigenous adult student in my class once remarked, “I’m so tired of being followed around in stores.” My co-worker who is Indigenous also has the same experience. Unearned white privilege creates an automatic assumption on the part of floor walkers that I am in their store on legitimate shopping business. My adolescent shoplifting never enters their story about me, whereas their story about my Indigenous friends is built on prejudgments based on lies they inherited as surely as I inherited privilege.
Can you say that again? LOL.
Caitlin F.,
NH
My Dad and his family are all from Canada, with thicker Canadian accents. Over time, his accent has become less noticeable, but growing up I did seem to also have somewhat of a Canadian accent. My accent became more mixed after living in the Midwest US and Southeast Asia. I never noticed it until I moved to the East Coast, to a predominantly white area where there wasn’t a lot of movement in and out of the community. I was constantly made fun of for how I speak. People (adults and kids!) would ask me to repeat a word and then say it back in a mocking way. It frustrated me and really embarrassed me, and made me not want to talk much in school. I was so taken aback that people went out of their way to interrupt a conversation to point this out. English is my first language, so I can’t imagine how horrible it makes people who are learning English or English as a secondary language.
Since when is female a different race?
Andi Ray Bartnek,
Canada.
I grew up in a household with 4 generations of females and have spent my whole life having to justify my name and my sex. Part of me liked being different, the rest of me hated having to argue over who and what I was. That hasn’t changed after 67 years.
Acadian-Irish women need not apply
Janice Marquis,
Canada.
White woman seeking work 8 years in Canada not being hired because I am 16 generations in Canada and white and English.
This is what Jewish looks like.
Dana Star,
Canada
My response when I hear yet again, “But you don’t look Jewish…” My son (who evidently does look Jewish) was in training to be a social worker in Winnipeg when the subject of race came up. He started talking about being Jewish but other (mostly indigenous) students said, “No, you’re white.”
But mostly I want to thank everyone involved in this project. I just finished “Our Hidden Conversations”, plan to donate it to our local library and buy more copies for relatives in the States.
Poor Wandita she looks very “Indian”
Wanda Luna,
Canada.
Wanda Luna. 41 years old. Mestiza, Chilean born. When I was 4 while playing with my little brother I over heard my aunt say to my mom how bad she felt that I looked indigenous. Many in Chile still favor those with lighter skin and will self identify as white.
Afraid Canada is becoming the USA
Virginia Junkin,
Canada
Thank you for this project and your wonderful, educational book. Should be a text book in US history classes instead of Rise of the American Nation
Share culture, ponder perspectives, embrace uniqueness.
Hunter Curry,
Laguna Niguel, CA
I am white, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have culture. My father is from Canada, and my mother is from Germany, and both immigrated to the US in 2000. They built everything they have from nothing, no generational wealth. I am strongly connected to my German culture and thoroughly enjoy discovering what other cultures have to offer, whether it be through cuisine, dance, or practices. We as Americans need to be more openminded and recognize that culture is here to share, and that plenty of people are more than happy to share their traditions and experiences, if you are welcoming and genuinely curious to expand your cultural knowledge.
What do you think my ancestry is?
Daniel,
Charlotte, NC.
I do not want to say what country I am from, because I want you all to guesstimate my ancestry? Where would you say I am from? What part of the world do my features reflect? Please explain your responses! Please share your thoughts with me.
I am NOT from the U.S.A.
I am NOT from Canada.
I am NOT from South America.
I am not from the Americas.
Stopping myself from hating white people
Simone,
Canada.
I’m Asian-Canadian, and honestly, it’s kind of hard not to feel just plain alienated right now. It’s just gotten bad lately.
The level of xenophobia towards Chinese, or anyone assumed Chinese, is seriously tiring. It’s maybe the straw on the camel’s back here. It reminds me of my early childhood in Vancouver seeing stuff like “Chinese go home” graffiti etc.
If it’s not me- because I have a very decidedly Canadian accent and don’t even speak my native language- it’s targeted at people who look like me, the kinds of people who honestly have no difference from my ama, from my relatives, from my parents.
I’m becoming self-conscious when people go out of their way to avoid me when I’m out. I don’t think I’ve seen any fellow Asians without masks, most people who aren’t white tbh wear masks. I wear masks. But the focus is on my community all the same.
I don’t hate white people, and I know there’s a lot of amazing people. But saying I feel alienated is an understatement. There’s a serious feeling that I should just stick to my own and maybe eventually leave though Canada’s where I was raised since I was 2.
Canada has a racism problem, too
Emma Lamson Edirisinghe,
Canada.
Following the U.S. election, hatred and bigotry have reared its ugly head in Canada, too, where many think racism isn’t a problem like it is in the neighbour to the south. There have been crimes and assaults particularly against Muslim and Jewish people, including a shooting at a Quebec mosque that left six dead — an extremely rare occurrence in Canada due to the strict gun laws. Canadians need to push back against the radical white supremacy that has taken over in the U.S., because it CAN happen here, too.
