Grandma called me “pretty colored girl”
R. Denise Everson, Washington, DC. My grandmother reared me. Her positive expressions of beauty being black shaped my perception and made me proud to be...
What do you people call Grandma?
Anonymous, Bethel, CT I’m Caucasian and raised as a Jew. She was Catholic and my daughter’s mother-in-law. I thought that was the only difference between...
White child calls black man Dad
Morgan Fort Lauderdale, FL My now three and a half year old brother named Kendall was born to two crack addicted parents. My grandmother now...
Enough to make you look pretty
Adrienne Zimiga, Minneapolis, MN. I was born and raised on the Pine Ridge reservation my first 12 years. Upon moving from Batesland, SD to Castlewood,...
Grandma’s racial rejection disappeared with Olivia
Elizabeth Clair Winslow, Denver, CO. No one from my immediate family showed up when George and I were married. But when Olivia was born, all...
Who are your ancestors. Be honest.
Alison Bailey, Bloomington, IL. Yes. I’ve been able to find out who my 3d greatgrandmother is until recently. She was the bastard child of Joseph...
Wait, why is your grandma Asian?
Ryan Flanagan, Mountain View, CA A friend in high school asked me this question after meeting my grandmother, who is Filipino. I grew up eating...
Family talks, and I get mad
Tasha Thompson, Coon Rapids, MN. I’m a 19 year old white female, and my grandma was born in the 40s. She is very old fashioned...
Annie/Grandma/black/white hands entwined
Susan Ross, Longmont, CO What a blessing this memory brings! Annie so tall/my tiny bent grandma – laughing together, I feel included & embraced by...
Grandma for grandkids of many colors
Emma Cate, San Jose, CA We have four grandsons who are half black, one adopted grandson who is brown, two great-grandkids who are half Chinese....
Armenian, Tagalog, Ilocano, no. Wolof, yes.
Anoosh Jorjorian, Santa Monica, CA. My paternal grandmother came to the U.S. to escape the Armenian Genocide. My maternal grandfather jumped aboard a U.S. submarine...
So white, you would never guess.
Francis, Livingston, MT If the civil war had gone differently I could have been born a slave. The children of slaves are almost always slaves....
I’m white my daughter is black
Jennifer Berkemeier, Farmington Hills, MI. I’m a single mom. I adopted my daughter from Haiti in 2012 when she was 4 years old. I’m white,...
Grandmother ate in kitchen with housekeeper
Alice J Walker Gay, GA This concerns a story told to me about my grandmother, who died in 1960 when I was five years old....
Grandma said I looked too haole.
Carol Silva Portland, OR My step-grandma danced, taught, and had her own hula group who performed during the week on Oahu. Once when she and...
I don’t know Inez’s last name.
Rosemary Brinson Siipola, Kalama, WA. Reflecting on growing up in Duplin County, North Carolina, my Grandma Cora was the matriarch of a large family. Inez...
