“Hush, Child, they’ll take Grandma away!”
Robin Greeley St. Louis, MO This is what my relatives said to me at a family reunion in the 1950s.They were afraid that if it...
No longer want to prove worth
Milicia, USA. Growing up I received the message that I had to be better than Whites. I didn’t want to embarrass my ethnic group, this...
It just isn’t done. Why Not?
Catherine, Beach City, OH. I have always been told by my father that ” I better not catch you with some black kid!” or by...
“Does he know,” Nana asks, worriedly?
Liz Pryor, Northampton, MA. Smith College. My mother was white. So was her whole family. After my husband, who is white, proposed, my grandmother cornered...
What color is she? -Grandma
Ashley Ward Edgewood, MD My Grandmother grew up in a different time, where to be light was right and to be dark was wrong. My...
Proud white son, loving Chicano family
JB Tellez, Seattle, WA. All my remembered life I have been fortunate enough to be raised by a loving chicano father (and grandmother, great grandmother,...
Are you a honky, or not?
Jeremy Wilhelm, Atlanta, GA. Got this from a peer while living in Kansas in the late 1980s. I didn’t know what honky was. Picture is...
“Black” enough for slavery, still “White”
James Cannon, Sacramento, CA. I’m forbidden from appreciating my African English grandmothers experiences and how they contributed to my outlook on life, or sharing this...
Racism definitely exists for a reason
Johnson, USA. I am sick to death of people trying to pretend like there aren’t legitimate reasons for racism. Not always, but they are there....
Light brown, dark brown don’t matter!!!
Shaunta Whitaker, Lompoc, CA. I am a grandmother and I love being a grandmother but with it comes some heartache because of some of the...
I am Mexican, I am American
Ricky Quezada, Sanger, CA. I don’t really embrace beng Mexican. I don’t speak Spanish. English is my only Language, but my father was born in...
I am not plain white rice.
Nicole Rice, San Juan Capistrano, CA. I am more than just ‘white’ even though everyone looks at me and says that is all I am....
I’m American – where’s my checkbox?
Blair White Haddad, Los Angeles, CA. Being the child of an adopted mother, for a long time I only knew half of my genetic make...
I called my white grandmother Mammy.
Kendra Jones Selma, AL My grandmother carried her moniker with pride, though it has a dubious beginning: At six weeks of age my mother was...
Couldn’t convince grandmother slavery was immoral
Denise Pierce, Sterling, VA. My grandmother who was born in NC in 1901 and lived to be 105 tried to instill in me a love...
Uncle Julian shot, only a Mexican
Douglas Rule Colorado Springs, CO 1904 Sopris, CO, killed in a shoot out. Only reason situation not dismissed is that my grandmother’s sister Laura was...
So wish it didn’t matter still.
Sharla Yeutsy Urbandale, IA I’m a white 73 year old grandmother of seven who has always lived in the midwest. I am grateful that I...
