I wish demographic questions didn’t exist.
Heather Holdridge, Dunwoody, GA. I am a high school student and every time I take a standardized test it asks me for my race and...
Hispanic Mulata NOT African American, Okay?
Tracy, Pittsburgh, PA. During the summer I’m darker so I’m African American, during the winter I’m lighter so I’m other. My family comes from a...
Yesterday, I was other. Today: Multiracial.
Walter Thompson-Hernandez, Los Angeles, CA. I am a native of Los Angeles, California and the proud son of an African American father and a first-generation...
I refuse to choose just one.
Cody Fong CA I’m half white and half Asian. And if there isn’t an “Other” box I decline to answer.
I have failed my biracial daughter.
Michele Malmstrom, Charlottesville, VA. My daughter has always had very low self-esteem. I tried her entire life to address the problem by complimenting her and...
Being bilingual is not a disadvantage.
Angie Cruz, Los Angeles, CA. As a person of brown skin color and Latin heritage, I am often spoken to in Spanish by strangers with...
Hispanic white woman discriminated by every race.
Bridget, Washington, DC. As a child growing up in the Texas Hill Country I was often told to go back to Mexico. I didn’t speak...
No, I’m not Hispanic. I’m Arab.
Ian M., Orange County, CA. My mom is an immigrant from the Middle East, my dad was born in Texas, yet my brother and I...
Red Cross “races” my blood. Why?
Mara Leveritt, Little Rock, AR. When I donate blood to the Red Cross someone looks at me and identifies me as “Caucasian” on their form....
White, Black, Latino, Asian, or Human?
Michael S., Elk Grove, CA. My mom divorced and remarried 3 times with 3 different men with totally different race and had a child from...
Delaware, Kiowa, Comanche, Mexican, Oh My!
Kristina T., Oklahoma City, OK. I’m half Native American and half Mexican. I have 3 tribes’ blood that runs through my veins along with Mexican...
Mixed race: which box gets checked
Andrea Alexander, Rochelle Park, NJ. The constant dilemma of “boxing” your identity when your category is not among the selections.
“White” papers over background identity.
Catherine Kehl, Cleveland Heights. OH. When we divide ourselves into “us” and “other” we don’t only lose the other, we lose ourselves. I was twenty-seven...
