My Speech Doesn’t Define My Skin
Ari Wiggins, Des Moines (DMACC), IA I chose this phrase because throughout my childhood and adulthood I am asked often about the way I talk....
Race segregates ignorance and quasi-perfection
Melvin Jones, San Francisco, CA. One would think that California is a progressive state that seldom harbors racism. Unfortunately that is just a heartbreaking fallacy....
White but grew up as minority
Vicki Hohner, Olympia, WA While I am a white midwesterner by origin, I spent most of my formative years as a minority. First as part...
You seem to be educated enough
Rubbyat Nawaz, Canada On my way back home, in the subway, I used to read books to take advantage of the forty minutes ride. My...
Being Black and southern, educated engineer
Kristen Ellerbe, Richmond, VA. Calling me an Oreo or not really black, or basically a white girl means that you define some part of my...
Why do you talk so proper?
Cameron McCall, Fontana, CA. The reason I choose these six words is because I don’t like how I am stereotyped to be un-educated and ghetto....
Speaking Proper Doesn’t Mean “Speaking White”
Messiah Toure, Philadelphia, PA. All my life, I’ve felt empowered by vocabulary and being educated. However, there seems to be a correlation between being educated...
I’m a strong, educated, ambitious latina.
Sandra Hidalgo, Elizabeth, NJ. Family is my priority, my faith is my fuel, and I do whatever it takes to break stereotypes.
Educated man people see only black
Jason Adams Wichita, KS I have fought to educated myself so I could raise my family into the middle class but at every job I...
White man, from: Idaho, Arkansas, Justice
Michael R Riley, Potlatch, ID. I can go over to Seattle and order coffee, make conversation, and say I’m from Idaho, and the people are...
Hillbilly White Trash? I’m Oxford educated.
C. B, WV. I grew up poor in a rural West Virginia. My race, the way I talk and where I’m from immediately make people...
Sons. Educated. Childless. Lawful. Doesn’t matter?
Robin Crawford Mitchellville, MD I fret and worry daily about all 3 of my sons, despite the fact all are grown men. They are college...
Am I Black Enough For You?
Katherine Barrax, Sherman, TX. I grew up in a house with parents who both went to college. I was reading before I entered kindergarten, and...
Highly educated black woman. …so what
Levaughn, Grand Blanc, MI. I’m a master social worker and received my accelerated advanced degree from a top ten university…MSU… I am an outpatient therapist...
