Have BOTH parents in my life.
Maliek Chambers,
Long Island, NY
People assume that you don’t have both parents in your life if you are black and especially not ones that are happily married. I am black and have both parents in my life and they are happily married and both have careers.
My great-grandparents fled pogroms in Ukraine.
Britt Trachtenberg,
Long Island, NY
p>I think part of my story is about how I ended up being born with privilege in an affluent community in Long Island, while my great-grandparents immigrated from Russian-controlled areas of the Ukraine in the early 1900s. My great-grandparents sought to leave because of instances of religion-based violence– called “pogroms” in Russia. They settled in Brooklyn, where they would open a hardware store and raise two children: my grandmother and aunt. My grandmother has fond memories of working in her parents’ hardware store and often speaks to how hard her parents worked to give herself and her sister a better life in America.
“Pogrom” is a Russian word that translates to “wreak havoc” in English. Historically, there are many instances of Ukrainian and Russian Jewish people being persecuted and attacked for their religion. For example, in 1903, Kishinev became a very unsafe place for Jewish Ukrainians to live after a newspaper used the minority group as a scapegoat for the death of two children. Such statements, unfortunately, resulted in many murders and homes destroyed (Source: https://www.history.com/topics/russia/pogroms).
Today, antisemitism is still a relevant topic all over the world. Many leaders, activists, actors, and members of our communities have spoken out against antisemitism and have started movements and calls to action to create change. The movement Grassroots Jews (www.http://www.grassrootsjews.org/new-page) works to bring together communities of Jewish people through things like services, communal meals, and even food recipe suggestions for holidays. Another movement called Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (https://www.bendthearc.us/) focuses on bringing together Jewish voices in America to fight for justice and equality in chapters across the U.S. Current campaigns include petitions to stand with Jewish communities in Florida against white nationalism. Movements like the ones named above are relevant to my story as an American Jewish woman because of how antisemitism hurts my Jewish friends, family, and neighbors and how much it has hurt my relatives and people that my relatives care about.
My heart will forever be grateful
Randy-Michael,
Long Island, NY.
No matter the struggles I go through as a Puerto Rican adult in this world, I will forever be grateful of what I have been granted in this life. My family, my friends, all the positives and the negatives I cherish and when I get knocked down, I learn to get back up. Nothing can stop me from being who I am.
You’re Italian? Are you considered white?
Robert Amore,
West Hollywood, CA.
NYC Born, High School North Shore Long Island, University Evanston Ill., Manhattan Resident for 20 years. Moved to Los Angeles in 2005. To my shock not once but at least 6 times asked the above question. Why anyone would be asked this question is disgraceful. Observing Race discrimination and prejudice almost daily in Hollywood is extremely disappointing. Not since visiting Switzerland in 1985 and told to take the service entrance at my hotel or childhood prejudice anti-Italian sentiment on Long Island in the early 60’s have been experienced.
“Garcia”? Are you Mexican or Colombian?
Alexandra Garcia,
Long Island, NY.
My father emigrated from Spain in 1974, and we have been raised to be proud of our Spanish heritage and culture. In school, whenever I told people I was Spanish, they assumed I meant Mexican or Colombian or Puerto Rican. I’ve always been annoyed by that, because no one knows what it means to be Spanish and growing up in America, it’s been hard to keep our family traditions alive. It’s especially harder when people have been defining you externally with the wrong cultures: think of friends giving me straw sombreros, because “She’s Mexican, right?”. On the other hand, being a proponent of Hispanic culture with an olive-toned European complexion allowed me to see what some white Americans really think of “foreigners”; having white skin allows me to interlope and hear the things people say when they’re in the company of their peers. As for me, I’ve never felt truly at home with white America or brown America– We’re just Spanish.
Equality is an evolving Concept.
Victor Goode
Long Island, NY
America’s first revolution was enshrining the value of liberty into our constitution. The Civil War Amendments, 13, 14 and 15 enshrined equality as a paramount value of American life.
YOU’RE RACIST, BUT WON’T ACCEPT IT.
Lauren L.
Long Island, NY
I notice that there are an overwhelming number of white people who refuse to accept that they have racial biases. This is certainly NOT the case with every white person out there at all, just to be clear. But when a black person says something about race, they immediately want them to stop “bringing race into everything”. Mostly this is because they don’t want to believe that there’s any possibility that they could be racist. They insist that race has nothing to do with things…which shows me just how stubborn they are. How can a person be absolutely positive that race is a non factor? We look back at 50 years ago and think about how much progress has been made since then, and believe that blacks are just holding resentment inside to still say that race matters. But not until you walk a day in the shoes….having to follow certain guidelines to protect yourself from the police who are supposed to be protecting you….being followed around in stores and denied entry in restaurants (yes still in 2013) will you understand that it’s still very much present. And this is not the only form that racism comes in. Most times, racism has more to do with your thoughts and presumptions about people of a certain race…it can be as simple as a stereotype that you believe applies to a person before you know anything about them beyond what you see. Put your pride aside…be honest with yourself. Stop refusing to believe that you may be racist. Blacks and whites alike need to embrace the biases they have so that they can start to work on changing them.
But you don’t look Puerto Rican…
Paul David Mena
Wayland, MA
As if a Puerto Rican can’t be fair-skinned, middle-class and college-educated! Granted, I was raised by parents who looked for a life as far away from their Depression-era upbringing in Brooklyn as possible. They found it further east in suburban Long Island, where I grew up with zero consciousness of race. Was this a good thing?
Best friend seventh grade was black.
John Fisher-Smith
Ashland, OR
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I immigrated from UK in 1939 when I was 12 1/2 years old and entered 7th grade in Huntington Long Island. I was afraid walking miles to school. I was teased a lot and bullied for being different. Sammy, the only black boy in town, was my true friend in the class. I felt safe with him; I was drawn to his warm loving nature, his decency and gentle sense of humor.
