Kalea Deutsch,
Los Angeles, CA.

That’s how I see it. I am a product of a black father and a white mother. Being black has brought me zero benefit. It is instead a negative label I am burdened with. It is the realization that I, as a partially black woman, am labeled as largely undesirable by society and the opposite sex, no matter how well-educated I am (let alone if I were full black) or how many chemicals I throw in my hair to straighten it, or how many hours I spent masking the cancerous DNA that runs through my blood—I will never be able to escape it. It is the realization that all of my accomplishments will be seen through the lens of my race. I can honestly say that being black is the worst thing to ever happen to me. And I find it to be ugly, damaging, hindering, and cancerous.