No moccasins. You’ll wear real shoes.
Elizabeth, Denver, CO. My mother is mixed race, Indian and white. She grew up pretty poor, but she told me once that she always had...
You are pretty, are you Indian?
Freda NC I am African American. Growing up I was often asked this question in some form or another “are you mixed, what are you,...
What’s the best Indian restaurant?
Nayna Sasidharan Arlington, VA That asked within the first few minutes of meeting someone
Really? Are both your parents Indian?
Shevon Desai Ann Arbor, MI My parents emigrated from India to the US over 50 years ago. In terms of ethnicity, I think of myself...
Not Member of Your White Club
Britt Verstegen, Socorro, NM. I grew up as a blonde, blue-eyed kid in an interracial family within a racially diverse neighborhood of inner-city Detroit. My...
Made-up, fear, love, in, out, together
Dev Michel Luthra, Jamaica Plain, MA. I am the child of an Indian (Asian) father and a European mother, both of whom were raised in...
You’re Guamanian? You’re whiter than me!”
All my life, people have mistaken me for “races” that I am not: Mexican, Hawaiian, Filipino, Indian, Brazilian. I was always flattered because I thought...
White. Live on Indian Reservation. Blessed!
Terry Larson, Cass Lake, MN. I have lived my whole life with Ojibwe people, am a fishing & canoe guide at the beginning of the...
Why is your English so good?
Basundhara Mukherjee South Burlington, VT I was born in India, lived in Saudi Arabia, and grew up mostly in a small town in Vermont. English...
To belong everywhere and nowhere simultaneously
Amanda Baran, Arlington, VA. “No, I’m not Mexican. Nope, not Latino. I’m an American who’s half Syrian and half Indian. Well actually, my father’s former...
Latin America has light-skinned racists too.
Patricia Linderman, Mexico. I’m the spouse of a US diplomat, and we have lived in four Latin American countries for a total of 11 years....
I’m racist but fight the tendency.
Mark Donaldson, Edgewater, CO. I’m white, grew up in rural PA in a mostly white school. I live in CO now and work in tech...
Trindijew? Jindidadian? … I give up. “Other.”
Priya Charry, Middletown, CT. Much too complicated to be expressed in a single word. Jewish father of Eastern European descent, Trinidadian mother of Indian descent.
Will you have an arranged marriage?
Krishna Ghodiwala, Washington, DC. I am an Indian American woman who was born in Canada, immigrated to the US at the age of 3, and...
Biligaana living off-reservation and missing frybread
Ezra Rosser Washington, DC Biligaana is a Navajo/Dine word that means “white, other, or the enemy.” I grew up in part on the Navajo Nation...
White women kill for that color.
Kavita Charleston, SC As an Indian-American woman working in agriculture, I used to frequently get some variation of this comment when I sold at farmers’...
