Cops beat me. Spoke up, anyway!!
Theo E.J. Wilson, Denver, CO. After being beaten by the police, I took an activist journey that landed me on the TED stage. This is...
You have the right skin color
Erin Fischer, Boulder, CO. This is actually the end of a quote from Abraham Verghese’s novel, Cutting for Stone. The whole quote says “Accent be...
Social construction to maintain white dominance
Jana Everett, Denver, CO Studying the creation of race as a concept in the 1500s and its use to justify slavery, colonialism, genocide of indigenous...
Well How Black Am I Really?
Carnesia, Aurora, CO. As far back as I can remember I’ve always been told by past educators that I am very “well mannered” unlike the...
Happy Birthday, you missed teen pregnancy.
Riley Witting, Denver, CO. More often than not, whenever a friend turns twenty, most of my friends congratulates her by saying “Way to go! You...
You look Scandinavian but wrong color
Stacy Reuille-Dupont, Durango, CO. This was a statement made to me by a woman at work. She was a client, me an employee. She had...
Did you grow up wearing shoes?
Jessica Anderson, Denver, CO. I grew up in the Appalachian mountains of East Tennessee, but I now live in Colorado. People always ask ridiculous questions...
I fight for Americans, whatever color
Damon Williams, Florence, CO. I served four years in the 82nd Airborne Division from Jan 2001 to Jan 2005. Served in three tours and would...
You can sit in the bar
Diane Graves, San Antonio, TX. My husband and I (both Anglo) were driving our adopted daughter (born in El Salvador, adopted as an infant, a...
MY VOICE DOESN’T MATCH MY APPEARANCE
Ciandra, Denver, CO . Black people are not monolithic. We are a diverse group of individuals with different experiences. I grew up in Colorado and...
I pass. What is my place?
Jennifer Ward, Denver, CO. As discussions have proliferated in Denver and online about race, the Black Lives Matter movement, and how change should be implemented,...
Privileged quadroon not passing for white.
Kailey Irene Kaes, Englewood, CO My mixed family of color and the white folk who married into it gave me the only culture I know....
No moccasins. You’ll wear real shoes.
Elizabeth, Denver, CO. My mother is mixed race, Indian and white. She grew up pretty poor, but she told me once that she always had...
Raised in segregated north, I’m racist.
Rev. Kathy Bird DeYoung, Aurora, CO. I was raised in metro Detroit in one of the white northern suburbs. Now I live in the most...
I’m not prettier because I’m white.
Rhiannon Watkins, Centennial, CO. Why are magazines always filled with white and light-skinned women? I have never in my life had a shortage of skinny,...
Don’t ask if I eat bacon
Jessica Grauer, Denver, CO This question has bothered me for a long time, and I’ve only recently been able to pinpoint why. The assumptions other...
