Freckles don’t make me a freak
Karlee Hedden, Young Harris, GA Growing up, I was often picked on for having freckles. As I got older I began to hate them and...
Why isn’t my Quincenera proof enough?
Emily Angelica Roldan, Saint Francisville, LA. My father is from Colombia and my mother is from Georgia. I have pale freckled skin, glasses, and I...
Can’t see beyond my white privilege
Jessica, CA. I am a white female living in California with my white family. I grew up in an area where I was one of...
Mixed heritage. Feeling strange growing up
Katie Moore New Echota, GA I used to hate the way I looked growing up. My mom & brother had fair skin & freckles &...
“What’s wrong with your skin?” Freckles.
Amanda Claiborne, Pahoa, HI. Asked of me by a typical Hawaiian child of mixed background, brown skin, hair, and eyes. A reminder that blue-eyed freckled...
No one knows unless I tell
Natasha Smith, Philadelphia, PA. I am white. I look white. I am white? Pale skin, red frizzy hair, littered with freckles. Often I am asked...
Oh, you’re white, right? No, actually.
Hilary Forrest, Pasadena, CA. Every single time a person meets me, they’ll assume my race is “white.” That’s where you’re wrong. My nationality is American;...
Hispanic? Really? You’re white to me.
Danielle Perea, Denver, CO. I’m a light-skinned, freckled Hispanic woman just trying to deal.
“Is that mud on your face?”
Anna Shaw, Deltaville, VA. This is the question that my brother and I were asked by native children in the Bahamas. Each member of my...
I look white. But I’m not.
Anoymous, USA. I’m 1/4 white genetically. But I look white–light eyes, fair skin, freckles–despite the fact that my full-siblings don’t. My best friend is half...
I am simply human, nothing more.
Patti J Baines, Anacortes, WA. I belong to the curly haired, wide bottom affiliation of short women with freckles that inhabit this part of the...
I’ve grown to hate white people.
Chiyoko, USA. I am one quarter Japanese. I have auburn hair, light brown eyes, and freckles. I am five foot nine, and my skin is...
Cracker? You burnt piece of toast!
Patti Bear Middletown, DE This was a exchange when I was in 5th grade, over a call in a kickball game. I know now what...
“If you’re Puerto Rican, I’m white!”
Casey Creech Pinehurst, NC My mother was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and my grandmother was raised in San Juan. All of my cousins have...
Raised mixed, married mixed, had mixed.
Alisha Partlow Eugene, OR My mother is red haired, blue eyed Danish/German. My father, dark haired, brown eyed Mexican. I married a man whose biological...
