Why are they staring at me?
Sophia Villasenor, Anaheim, CA Moving to Boise, Idaho when I was 7, I dealt with a change. I quickly felt as if I wasn’t the...
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...
I do not smell like curry
Anusha Ghildyal, USA I used to get this comment often when I was in elementary school. I would be surprised to hear this comment because...
I Will Not Be Silent Anymore
Yiming Fang, Hopkinton, MA I remember once in fifth grade, a friend and I were talking, and she was trying to figure out how many...
You Talk Like A White Girl
Aaliyah Gaskins, New Orleans, LA I chose these 6-words because growing up I was always told I talked differently and had my blackness questioned multiple...
Your skin feels just like mine!
Laura Speegle Waco, TX I teach elementary school in Waco, Texas. I can’t remember why this little bitty girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old,...
Wash your hands. Brown is dirty.
Michelle C-H Dorchester , MA When I was a little kid, in the 70’s, My family was the only black folks most of the people...
(We) had trouble with another white teacher.
Diana Imhoff, Brookings, OR p>I was raised in a white community, so I had never really seen racism. I taught school in a minority elementary...
I was always different growing up
Julie Long, Pioneer, CA. When I was 8, we moved from a big city to a small country town, where there were, maybe two other...
But, you don’t look Jewish
Rose Brown, Fort Myers, FL I don’t typically tell people that I’m Jewish. In elementary school, I was the only Jew and as such I...
Western Michigan meets Korea near Chicago
Mark Cooper Lafayette, IN In elementary school, my best friend turned to me and said, “Mark, I don’t even think of you as asian anymore!”...
Isn’t that the symbol Nazis used?
Eesha Verma, USA. When I was in elementary school, we had a Diversity Day kind of thing where everyone was asked to bring in something...
Excuse me, are you a Negro?
Jean Pierce Morrow, State College, PA I grew up in a suburb of West Philadelphia in the 1950s. My town had two elementary schools, and...
Why my kids are the minority
Tara Jackson, MS They go to the highest scoring elementary school in the state of Mississippi which happens to be 98% African- American. My kids...
I talk the walk too much!
Eric Wall, Kent, WA. I was fortunate to be part of an integrated busing program all through elementary school. I went to college and got...
Prayed God would make me White
Amber Price, Atlanta, GA. I was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I grew up ashamed of my Blackness. I heard the n-word for the first time...
We are more alike than unalike
Emily Patten, Phoenix, AZ. I grew up in a city with a substantial lack of racial diversity, yet my parents and teachers were able to...
I will not be another statistic.
Caitlin Defoe, RedLake, MN. I want to be one of the few that leave the reservation and get an education and make a life for...
