Bev Parisi, Greenbelt, MD My mother’s family was told “get out Wop,” because they’re Italian. As I grew up I was called a “Christ-killer” and people carved swastikas into my school desks because I’m Jewish. Now my daughter will be called “ugly” “fragile” and “guilty” because she is “white.” In most places I’ve lived, white […]
Identity Thief Blasian Sensation Lifelong Educator
Jennifer Wong Cernak, Chester, MD. I have been listening to your race-card stories for a long time and heard the topic of mixed race come up again and again. In the past identity has been a struggle for me, but now I feel comfortable with who I am. There were many days, growing up, I […]
I’m from northern suburban New Jersey.
Ian Heinz, College Park, MD. Enough said.
Grateful for the help today
I recently lost my fiancée of 6 years in an accident at work. I am very grateful for the help because funds are really low right now, losing our major source of income. Thank you.
Puerto Rico’s Identity Crisis Defines Me.
Isabel Nicole Otero Hernandez, Silver Spring, MD. I was born in Puerto Rico to a Cuban Mother and a Puerto Rican Father. The summer I turned 10 my family moved to Jacksonville, FL, and only a year later moved again to a small town to the north: Ringgold, Georgia. When people ask me where I […]
Not Pakistani enough, not American enough
AF, Laurel, MD.
Learn from History, Change the Future
Jerry, Leonardtown, MD Embrace the good and bad about our Country so we can make it a more perfect Union.
No, my daddy didn’t buy this
Rita Slowinski Phoenix, MD
Vietnamese is difficult, love is stronger
Tho Nguyen, Greenbelt, MD. Tho is from Vietnam and grew up in Tacoma Amanda is from Oroville, grew up in the Tri-Cities Tho and Amanda met at the Barnes and Noble in the U-Village while Tho was writing his dissertation Tho and Amanda lived in Vietnam for 4 years since 2008 Amanda learned Vietnamese. Tho’s […]
No one box is correct.
David Kung, St. Mary’s City, MD. In 2000 when I filled out my census card and was finally allowed to (correctly) check more than one box, I cried. David’s story was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. Listen
Being black doesn’t mean I’m struggling
Mikaella Mondesir, Upper Marlboro, MD
I want you to be authentic
Samantha Kaindi, Columbia, MD When I think about all the microaggressions said to me prior to this comment, I get really sad and wonder, what did I do to deserve this?
I passed Citizenship test, can you?
Avanti Iyer, Chevy Chase, MD. I’m tired of not been seen as having the same rights as white people (especially after 9/11). I had to pay hundreds of dollars in fees and take a test to become a citizen of the US. I am curious how many native-born white people have the equivalent civics, history […]
My husband calls me future girl.
Jennifer McCadney Bethesda, MD Growing up as a kid with a black dad and white mom in the late 70s and early 80s — in what was then a non-diverse industrial town — I struggled a lot with racism and my own racial identity. I felt strangely uncomfortable in my own skin and fought, on […]
I wish he was a girl.
Kristen Moorhead, Silver Spring, MD. I’ve always told my son, “You can be anything you want to be.” Before Shani Davis’ won gold, POTUS was elected – prior to Neil deGrasse Tyson gracing our screen in Cosmos. What was once – is still – momentous to me is his normal: ‘I like ice skating, why […]
Identity isn’t housed in a box
Karen Than Myaing Silver Spring, MD In this photo: what do you get when you mix an Israeli, a Trinidadian, a Jamaican, a Caucasian, a Burmese and an African American? Our beautiful family. We are Jews, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist. We are female. We are male. We are children. We are human. We do not […]
Don’t think of you as Asian…
Dan Ellerman, Baltimore, MD. I was adopted from S. Korea at the age of 3 by a German/Irish couple. I grew up in a white household and neighborhood and went to predominantly African American schools in Baltimore city. The words I chose were told to me by my family and friends with the best intentions […]
Is being mixed a bad thing
Danielle Gray, Laurel, MD.
This is your race? Go fish.
Adrea Benedetti, College Park, MD. I will not let race define who I am nor will I judge another based on the color of their skin.
So, is your family here legally?
Natalia, MD I was standing in line at a store when a woman looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face. She broke into a smile and apologized for staring. “I just can’t figure out what you are!” she said brightly. I almost considered posting here with the all too common “What are […]
Yes, I can comb my hair..
Shaunise Allmond, Baltimore, MD. Society assumes since I am a black woman with natural hair I cannot do simple tasks like combing my hair. My hair texture is extremely curly and what some consider nappy. I have broken combs in the past and will continue to break them in the future. My problem with people […]
Skin says black, hair says mixed.
Carolyn Hipkins, Largo, MD. All my life I’ve been told that I have “good hair”. Its very soft and with a loose curl pattern. If I straighten it or put a relaxer in it it looks like Caucasian hair. But let the humidity go up. My hair reverts to its natural curly state. I spent […]
We are all God’s beautiful children.
Audrey Kennedy, Baltimore, MD
“Hey, Geisha Girl!” What? Who, me?
Jennifer Luberecki Hagerstown, MD Being Korean-born and adopted at 3 by Caucasian parents, I grew up with my adopted parents culture (which is Polish and Scottish) and feel thoroughly American. Which is why it feels like a shock, and sometimes a slap in the face, when other people make assumptions about who I am. The […]
This snowflake is in my seat!
JR Baltimore, MD I am white and an Ashkenazi Jew. I was brought to this country by my refugee parents from Soviet Union when I was 18 with no preconceived notion about race or racism. I heard these words about 10 years later. They were shouted into a phone by a black man on Light […]
Strength is not yours to Exploit.
Carletta Robinson, Brandywine, MD I am often described as a strong, direct person. But somehow I get excluded from the everyday conversations that others take for granted such as the idealization, planning, and collaboration aspects of my work. However, when the going gets tough and nothing else will do but to stand as a united […]
Just what do you people eat?
Judith A Harper, Pikesville, MD. Years ago our family integrated a Predominantly Jewish neighborhood in New Haven, Connecticut. I am African-American. While walking our German shepherd, I was approached by an elderly woman who asked if she could ask a ‘personal’ question. It was the question submitted. For a moment, I was speechless, but then […]
You’re actually smart. Not Affirmative Action.
Nana A. Forson, Baltimore, MD. Said to me, by a Caucasian male, after a brief conversation during orientation- at The Johns Hopkins University. We were both freshman, enrolled in the same class.
Tired of always being considered foreign
Anonymous, Baltimore, MD
I fell for the assimilation trap
Brian Roberts, Gaithersburg, MD. I am a middle-aged American black man. I thought that if I lived my life as a solid citizen, went to the right schools, secured a good career, raised a family, I would not only provide for my family, I would set an example that would make white people less frightened […]
America’s war on black people continues.
Deborah Taylor, Baltimore, MD Having a hard time with my faith’s forgiveness requirement. Definitely falling short.
Spokesperson for EVERY black woman…? NOT!
Audrey N. Skinner, Rockville, MD Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies – Masters in HR Management Program This is good work. Keep it up!
A beautiful symphony, not a tragedy
Charlie Martel, Annapolis, MD
See my color. I see yours.
Florencetine Bourne Jasmin, Gwynn Oak, MD. My response to those who say, “I don’t see color.” But I need you to see my color. It is beautiful! How could you not see it. If you don’t see it, then you don’t see me, hear me, or know me….or won’t get to know me.
They love to stare, don’t they?
Rida Ahmed, Ellicott City, MD I am brown. On tests I pick the South Asian bubble. I second guess when buying light makeup. But I am brown. People think I look Hispanic, but I am Indian! And who says Indians can’t be Muslim? I am proud, I am brown.
I want to hear your song!
Barney Quinn, Bethesda, MD.
I am Isaac; I am Ishmael
Jonathan Aaron, Owings Mills, MD, As a Jew, I have always been intrigued by how Hitler twisted Jewish identity, indicting Jews as having bad blood and thus being an impure race requiring extinction. In the summer of 2015, I visited Berlin and discovered a fascinating art exhibit that challenged people’s notions of identity and asked […]
Racist parents from shame springs motivation
Ingrid Irigoyen, Bethesda, MD For the first decade of my life I lived with biological parents who were avowed racists. That experience was scarring because even as a young child my little gut instinct told me that they were wrong. Even though I didn’t fully understand it, the hate made me feel ill in the […]
Respectfulness earns your race-deserved respect.
Kirk R Towner, Lake Shore, MD Six more words in the form of a question: Will we ever not see color?
White supremacy I win needs dismantiling
Ken Woodward, Germantown, MD I’m a 49-year-old white male. I have primarily lived oblivious to the pervasiveness of white supremacy and mostly denied its existence. I raised a mixed race step-grandson from a 4 months old to now 24 years old. Two years ago I started my journey into understanding the world of People of […]
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 that changed. George was from Jamaica… a brown man. I was from Maryland; Mom said black Irish. Olivia teaches us about Intersectionality and Bias, twenty years later.
Never Been Asked: “What Are You?”
Ella Harris, Columbia, MD I always felt disconnected from my African American identity. With my blonde hair, light green eyes, and fair skin, the world that I live in is fundamentally different. I am never asked where I am from, or if I am mixed. I am never asked the notorious, “What are you?” And […]
Sorry, My Mom Don’t Like Blacks
Amber Roberson-Rowell, Essex, MD. That was my second incident of prejudice and what instilled in me that race–the color of my skin–was a problem. The first was during my first day of pre-school and being pushed off a tricycle by a little white boy and being told “You don’t belong here!” I was the ONLY […]
I didn’t know you were black
Jerrell Bratcher, Baltimore, MD Why does the color of my skin offend you? I’m tired of “you are smart.” I’m tired of “you don’t sound black.” What makes it so difficult for you to see my ideas as my own? Oh, it’s because I’m black. Why must everything that I say, think, or do as […]
My role model was not black.
Jamal Wills, MD. People often say that black kids need black role models. I sort of cheated. The wild hair, thoughtful eyes, the chin and the smile always reminded me of my grandfather. Yet, Albert Einstein was a German Jew whose prominence in the scientific community reached celebrity status. Even then, he still had to […]
We matter because of our SOULS
Briah Stokes, Baltimore, MD. My race nor sexuality should be an excuse to judge me. At the end of the day, our souls are our substance, our physical beings are just vessels that give our souls a home.
Are we really invisible to you?
Candace Bracey, Baltimore, MD.
Muslim, Mixed, and a Proud American
Natasha Virjee, Burtonsville, MD.
I´m more than what I look
Mario Jonas Ködel, College Park, MD.
I shouldn’t feel uncomfortable about race.
Tessa Foegelle, College Park, MD. I shouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable about talking about race issues just because I am white.
Did you just clutch your purse?
Chima Ordu Garrison, MD
Am I Jewish? Ancestry vs. Religion
Alexandra Vogt Crofton, MD Because I was not raised in the Jewish faith, I feel unable to claim my ancestry on my father’s side the way I do with the family history on my mother’s side (Norwegian immigrants.) I wish there were commonly used terms that differentiated Jewish ethnicity from the religion.
Father failed his brown bag test.
Derrick Warren, Baltimore, MD. I remember my father talking to me about his college days in Missouri. There was this fraternity on campus that would require their prospective pledges to pass what was said to be a brown bag test. Essentially, if you were darker than the brown bag, you could not get into the […]
I am tired of being exotic!
Marlina Tadesse, College Park, MD.
My Passiveness is not my Weakness
Nike’a Douglas Knoxville, MD
Three Strikes- Black, Deaf, and Female
La Toya Plummer, Greenbelt, MD. Although I have lived with three strikes for more than twenty years, the color of my skin always has been and always will be fundamental to who I am. When you are colorblind, you do not see me. Overlooking a portion of me that is susceptible to the brutal ignorance […]
That’s so typical of you people.
Angela Ogbonna Baltimore, MD I chose these six words because I find myself following this learned behavior. As a Nigerian, I even hold other Nigerians to a certain high standard because that’s what we are taught as children and what’s expected of us. I feel that no matter what your ethnicity is people will always […]
Slavery is chickenpox, racism is shingles
Tian McPherson, Baltimore, MD. …and these recent events are the visible rash. If a country practiced slavery, the racism problem is already inside it. It’s been there, largely unseen or easy to neglect… but it’s starting to burn and crackle now.
“Dad, please tell Emily I’m adopted”
Barney Rush, Chevy Chase, MD. Ours is an adopted family: my wife and I have two daughters, both of whom are Caucasian, as we are. We adopted them through agencies, the older when we lived in New York; the younger when we lived in Florida. After living six years in Europe, we returned to the […]
I am feared yet I’m fetishized
Elijah L Wheeler, Gaithersburg, MD. I’m a big Black man that can feel the fear of others as I enter their spaces, yet I also hear and am told of their amazement of my aesthetic. My muscles, my skin tone, my voice…as if their “amazement” is envious, jeaolous and hateful all at once…
Acceptable, only after identified as Hawaiian
Nedra De Lima, White Plains, MD. Experienced “minority status” when we moved stateside from Hawaii in the 70s. I was most often identified as Hispanic/Mexican. Was also identified as generic Native American or African American. Also Inuit or Louisiana Creole. Too many times, I only became acceptable after I identified as Hawaiian Chinese. Then I […]
The Korean kid is my brother.
Sarah Balcom Annapolis, MD
A transnational adoptee, consumed by “in-betweenity.”
Rebecca York, Takoma Park, MD Fighting for visibility and validity, in white and of-color spaces is perpetually exhausting. Transnational adoptees are at the heart of America’s racial, cultural, and nationalistic legislation and cultural beliefs. Stop gate-keeping, and let us join the conversation.
Afraid for my Native American children.
Jarret Cummings, Rockville, MD My wife and children are members of the Cherokee Nation, but we have the good fortune to live in an area where they are unlikely to face discrimination. I worry about what may happen if my children ultimately go someplace where racial discrimination is still prevalent and how I should prepare […]
Latkes or lumpia- beautiful Hapa struggle
Ann Hirschhorn, Silver Spring, MD. My parents grew up in a time where interracial couples were criticized for diluting the race of their children. My father expressed a fear that because I was of a mixed race background, I might not feel that there was a culture or place where I belonged. My mother grew […]
I married a black man anyway
Lauren, Bethesda, MD.
Six humans running Lincoln Memorial steps
Nancy Eliot Corrsin, Baltimore, MD. Somewhere in Japan is a snapshot of a black man, an oriental man, and a white man galloping down the Lincoln Memorial steps arm-in-arm with three wildly various white women, one petite in shorts and dark braids, one sleepy-eyed blonde earth-mother, and me in bib-front overalls. I think we all […]
Too Light, Too Dark…Who Cares
Wilhelmina Street, Baltimore, MD. Actually, more people of our very own race seem to struggle with the idea of an extremely light person marrying someone who is extremely dark. Even after 30 years of us being married I still catch racist remarks and side glances from those on our side of the tracks. In my […]
Mom’s white. Dad’s black. I’m spotted.
William Jones, Reisterstown, MD. It’s Vitiligo. Yes, it’s what Michael Jackson had. It basically means the cells that make skin color stop doing that. All though you can’t see it as well in lighter complexions, anyone from any race can develop it, and at the age of about 30, I became one of the 1% […]
Wrong race, Wrong day for fun
Reginald Leroy Johnson, Randallstown, MD. On my birthday in June 1963 my mother decided to take me to Gwynn Oak Amusement Park as birthday gift… We rode on the #28 bus…leaving the city the air was so sweet and clean, I saw ducks, and trees. I was so overwhelmed by this beauty…that I thought we […]
To boldly go…guess the rest
Blair Brown, Baltimore, MD. “To boldly go where no one has gone before.” These words have defined the human experience long before they were ever spoken aloud or put down on paper. I am neither interested in,nor feel the need to rehash our past in this country. Frankly what I do know is much more […]
Si Senor! I am US citizen
Heidy Avila Murillo, Baltimore, MD. My marriage is biracial, I am Hispanic and my husband is a Caucasian born in Maryland. This year after obtaining my US citizenship, my husband and I decided to have three days vacations in Canada. We visited Niagara Falls, Toronto city, and since I love Diego Rivera’s artwork, we decided […]
Another white invention they can’t control
Anita, Fort Washington, MD. I used to think inter-marriage would remedy it but now I think human nature is such that we will simply find new ridiculous criteria for exclusion.
My son can wear a hood.
Kristin Christy, Frederick, MD. When my son began high school in the fall of 2011, he chose not to request a locker; preferring instead to wait until he was assigned one as a baseball player in the spring. I admired Chaz’ confidence to be selected to the team, but wondered where he would keep things […]
Can’t take off this hateful uniform
David Thomas, Pasadena, MD. White Grandfather to two African American grandsons, what a world we have created for them. I loath the day they realize racism exists and have to explain why.
Pro-black doesn’t mean anti-white
Bobby Brown, Baltimore, MD. It wouldn’t be racism if it wasn’t for white people.
Never arrested for Driving While White.
Deb Vaughn, Gaithersburg, MD. I can drive around with anything in my car and never get a traffic stop. If I were a Person of Color, that would not be the case. My parents never had to have “the talk” with me…
Choosing not to live in fear.
Bill Cecil, Salisbury, MD. Awesome project!
I’m Asian, but also an American.
Henry Chen, College Park, MD. I am a 21 year old Asian male college student at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Allows me to celebrate my birthday
Nathaniel Hunt Glen Burnie, MD My parents are an interracial couple. I am a homosexual young man. And today is my 23rd birthday. Without the Civil Rights Movement, my parents would not have had the courage or approval to find, love, and marry each other. Without it, I may never have been born and if […]
I’m just an American outside America!
Alma Gill, Columbia, MD. When I travel to other countries, I find it fascinating when asked, are you American? I’ve never been asked or identified that way in my own country. I’m always flattered and proud to answer, why yes ~ I am American.
Mom said I never saw color.
Corrine Ferrell-Macatee, Baltimore, MD. Me, bad bangs, my best friend, little girl with braids, my cousin, cute little Japanese girl. My nana and sister are here too, it wasn’t til I was in my early teens I even realized we weren’t all white, black or Japanese.
Culminating kaleidoscope of pain, hate, love!
Reesa Motley Reynolds Annapolis, MD
I awaken further to the pain
Kenzie Raulin, Silver Spring, MD. It gets harder and harder to awaken to the pain caused by ‘white’ folks, out of ignorance, pain, greed. It’s not our fault, but I do feel it’s our responsibility to help change the world.
A Black Christian, not White Muslim
Ellen McDaniel-Weissler LaVale, MD When my sister, a Peace Corps volunteer, went to serve her two years with the Corps in Chad, Africa, my parents realized that she was at an age when she might meet and fall in love with someone and want to get married. My father was a Lutheran minister and a […]
School integration enriched my white life.
Cynthia Waszak Geary, Baltimore, MD. I grew up in Durham, NC and attended Hillside High School as part of the first court ordered desegregation plan to achieve racial balance. I am heart broken that since that time there has been a steady and deliberate re-segregation of schools in the US. I am hoping for leadership […]
Black albino women challenges racial expectations
Brandi, Silver Spring, MD. I’m a black woman with albinism. That has been both intriguing and confusing to people. Some people inquire about it and some make ignorant comments. I challenge the white-black dichotomy because I’m black but have white skin. I happily embrace both of my identities as black and as a woman with […]
Your experience does not invalidate mine
Elya, Chevy Chase, MD. I grew up very privileged, and when I realized that I was being bullied by my white peers because of race, my parents decided that I would no longer be sheltered because of my race. I became very active in my student activism group and because I am mixed, I was […]
A Cajun Girl in her Kilt
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo, Rockville, MD. A Cajun girl in her kilt, that’s me. My dad was born and raised in southeast Louisiana, as was I, but my mother was born to Scottish immigrants who came to the US for economic and religious freedom. Upon marrying my father, however, she abandoned her Scottish heritage and adopted […]
“You can’t change what you find.”
James Edward Harrah, Boonsboro, MD. My Father passed long before I grew interested in our family history. Upon the birth of my son, this was the response from an Aunt when I began tracing my family tree. It’s interesting how something most likely out of convenience and considered scandalous over 130 years ago, represents so […]
Dont be afraid to be different.
Allie Cohen, Baltimore, MD. Journalism 175 Class Being unique is what allows the world to be interesting and helps facilitate the creative flow of ideas. Without different types of people with different perspectives, creating innovative, out of the box ideas, would be challenging.
Loud family passionate about Family & Food
Ryan Sumner, College Park, MD. Italians are often seen as stereotypically loud and have a passion for food. My family falls into these stereotypes
We don’t want white privilege anymore
Tyler Fish, Pasadena, MD.
Sometimes, I’m ashamed of my race.
Vince, College Park, MD.
I am just another brown girl.
Regina Divya Jaladhi, Beltsville, MD.
Embrace your race, don’t abuse it
Julia Hirsch, Rockville, MD. I have experienced white privilege several times during my life. I am grateful for everything that I have, but I need to periodically remind myself not to take these things for granted. Just because I have white privilege doesn’t mean I should discriminate, stereotype, or be prejudiced. This is also true […]
Oreo: Black outside, white inside
Lauren, Silver Spring, MD. This was a term that was often used to describe me during my middle school days, it always hurtful to hear that people thought that because I was smart and took pride in my education it made me somehow less black.
Still afraid for my loved ones
Shari Washington, Clinton, MD. Angry that in 2014 I still fear for my beautiful brown children and their children simply because of the color of their skin. I am shocked and appalled by the brutality and number of incidents brought to light as of late involving the denigration of black people, esp., black men.
I saw a group of “undesirables.”
Danielle Giese, Cheverly, MD. This is what my white neighbor called a group of African American young men who were congregating outside of the a local grocery store. Apparently, one of them was showing off his new baby. I wondered if that will be how my sons will be described years from now. Will they […]
I’m sick with worry about us
Virginia Thompson, Towson, MD.
I struggle with ignorant white people.
Mark Parker Baltimore, MD I write this as a white person myself. And as someone who has always lived and worked in incredibly diverse communities and cities. I am the leader of a religious community, and a leader in a neighborhood, which includes a healthy percentage of folks that fall into this category. I feel […]
Are you Italian or White?
Giosue Romano, Annapolis, MD. I thought Italians were white. Does this mean we are POC, or do we get out one box now?
Swimming against the current is exhausting.
Emma, Towson, MD. Goucher College
Change is here. Are you ready?
Rocky, Bethesda, MD.
“You look white”, erases my father.
Janaki Kuruppu Rockville, MD As a child, my skin was darker and my hair frizzier, thanks to the genetic contribution of my father who was from Sri Lanka. As I’ve aged, I’ve come to resemble my white American mother more and more, Since my father died when I was 19, every time someone brings to […]
For rent..but not to me.
Charles Hicks, Silver Spring, MD.
A community with similar life experiences
Christopher Harper College Park, MD University of Maryland
Your husband’s black? But you’re Asian.
Nina Ball, Baltimore, MD. When people first meet my husband and/or see a picture of us together, the surprise is obvious. I’ve had a few people outright tell me that they just assumed he was Korean. More often than not, I get the question, “What do your parents think?” When they find out that, like […]
Tired of saying that we matter.
Rebecca Murphy, Baltimore, MD.
New option at doctors – Eastern European
Anonymous, Baltimore, MD. When people discuss race, they seem to refer to only people of color. I always check Caucasian on forms. At the doctors yesterday, there was a new option, Eastern European. It felt like a better fit for me. Just because my skin lacks pigment, doesn’t mean that I am the same as […]
Proud Guatemalan who is a feminist.
Genesis Herrera, Silver Spring, MD.
Race relations are not good now.
Mateo Wolfe, Rockville, MD.
Not White, not Native, not enough.
Vivian Johnson, Silver Spring, MD.
I’m white. So you hate me.
Annie, Glen Burnie, MD. I keep seeing people saying fuck white people. I am anything but privileged. I had a black manager who hated me. She did everything she could to try to keep me from succeeding two years ago. She threatened me on my birthday. Then, next birthday, she had everybody get together and […]
Let’s all un-hyphenate ourselves, as Americans.
Junga Kim, Bethesda, MD. Unite, not divide, Unhyphenate, not subdivide. We are all one species. Let’s act like it.
THE WALL, BLACK, AN HONORABLE COLOR.
David DeChant, Marine Vietnam Veteran Key West, FL Michele,Greetings again. I am a member of the core group of Vietnam Veterans who built The Wall ~ National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C.; and was at the meeting in Senator Warner’s office when General George Price, US Army Retired, ended the color controversy about “black” granite […]
Child Immigrant, Grown Defender of America
Ronnie Annapolis, MD The image of a child immigrant, who grew up to serve in the U.S. military is a bit cliche these days, especially after more than a decade of conflict. However, there is nothing cliche about an immigrant wanting to defend his adopted nation and his fellow Americans (both fellow immigrants and native […]
I blend in, wherever I go.
Brenda Footer Silver Spring, MD I live in a very diverse neighborhood, where many El Salvadoran and Dominican families live. People are always trying to speak to me in Spanish, because I have olive skin and dark hair. I’m as white as can be, but it’s always been this way. Italians assume I’m Italian, Latinos […]
My Ancestors Bones Not For Museum
Sonya Williams, Baltimore, MD. I grew up in a unique area of North Carolina in what is referred to as a ti-racial community. My Indian family are the Cheroenhaka Nottoway and Meherrin Indians of Southeast, VA & North Eastern, NC. When I went to college, during a lecture in my anthropology class, the professor was […]
Live for today, hope for tomorrow.
Saahil Jain, Gaithersburg, MD.
Indian, but not the IT guy.
Anish Pinto, College Park, MD. A lot of times people have told me assumed that I’m a Computer Science or Computer Engineering major because I’m Indian. Journalism 175 class at UMD
Prejudice is perpetuated by our silence
Joe Niehaus, College Park, MD. Like most conflictsusceptible, resolution begins with simple communication. Both sides of the racial divide are often too willing to disregard the other perspective of the other side. We need to work to acknowledge the merits of all peoples speech- regardless of color or background. Everyone can contribute to this conversation.
I Shouldn’t Get Benefits For Whiteness
Emily Bertot, Clarksville, MD. I grew up in Florida in an extremely non-diverse, middle-class area. Moving up North was a big culture shock, but it forced me to realize how many different types of people there are. I was also made aware of my privilege.
My race and culture are virtues
Samuel Safdari, Ijamsville, MD.
I define myself; nobody else can.
Rucheeka Desai, College Park, MD. I am the only person who has a say in who I am and who I will become. My race does not define me, my skin color does not define me, and other people’s opinions definitely do not define me.
Hard to know my white role.
Eric Lyness, College Park, MD.
Race should not matter in intelligence.
Leo Azucena, Gaithersburg, MD.
I am still an American citizen.
Yousuf Khan, Potomac, MD. I was born and raised in Springfield, VA before moving to Maryland. When you ask me where I’m from, expect me to proudly say Virginia.
I’m white, but I’m not racist
Sydney Gahwyler, College Park, MD.
I am comfortable in my skin
Niven, Frostburg, MD.
Everything is not a race thing.
Ariana Caldwell, College Park, MD.
Treat people of all races respectfully!
Jocelyn Broth, Baltimore, MD.
I am not my ancestor’s opinions
Zach Phillips, Millersville, MD.
Just an average, boring white guy.
Bradley Hogan, College Park, MD. I’m learning to recognize privilege and want to do what I can to even the playing field
Prejudice is taught; let’s unteach it.
Karen W. Gronau, Perry Hall, MD. I taught elementary school for four decades. I saw a good change over the years. My classes became more integrated. More importantly, over time, many of my students did not see color in their choice of friends. Change is way too slow though.
Too ambiguous to fit in anywhere.
Tasha L., Largo, MD. I am adopted, raised by a half French/half Black mother and full-blooded Sicilian father. I am half Black, quarter Indian (India) and quarter white in my biological heritage. I am told I look Latina or white, “definitely not Black,” and have always noticed I seem to confuse people when they try […]
I’m who I say I am!
Christina Martinez-Williams. Seat Pleasant, MD. My mother is German and English, at least third generation American born, and my father is Cuban, first generation born. Much of my life I tried to identify with my Cuban side, because that is the side that people cannot usually physically see, especially according to stereotypes of what Latina’s […]
I am always the perpetual foreigner.
Jina Lee, Germantown, MD. No, SRSLY though… I’ve gotten the “Do you speak English?” to “Wow! You actually speak English.” I’m American, and the year is 2015. Should these questions really be asked…now?
Carefully walking between cultures and races
Zamiul Haque, Rockville, MD.
I am what society makes me.
Charlie Seymour, Baltimore, MD.
We’ve got a new lawyer now
David Rotenstein, Silver Spring, MD. Africville was a community of African Canadians on Bedford Bay in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was settled in the early 1800s by former American slaves who went to Canada as Black Loyalists and as slaves during the American Revolution and War of 1812. After decades of neglect by the city […]
I am always missing some of me
Yasmin Gill Baltimore, MD My mother is white, American, and my father is Pakistani. Where ever I go, and whomever I am with, I rarely find someone who is at home with *all* of me. I am American, undeniably so, but there are peices of me that are also uniquely Pakistani. Americans see or experience […]
Being “black” isn’t my only story
Maya D., College Park, MD. Living the paradox of being too black for the white kids and too white for the black kids.
But we need you to choose….
Sonni Williams Germantown, MD My name is Sonni, and I am 47 years old. I have 3 sons, and all of them have white fathers. When my first two were born, it was clear to everyone that their father was white, or that they were of mixed heritage because of their fare skin and hair […]
I’m Asian American, it’s pretty cool.
Joseph Kim College Park, MD
Seen as black only by Americans!
Joel Anthony Murray, Sr. Westminster, MD. Iranians in DC thought I was Iranian. A Tunisian on a train with me to NY thought I was Tunisian. A Pakistani in Baltimore thought I was Pakistani. A Vietnamese coworker thought I was Middle-Eastern. A Nepalese coworker thought I was Indian or Pakistani. I work with people from […]
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 grandmother was extremely light, but my biological father is west indian and extremely dark. Dark like the ocean and I favored his complexion over my maternal genes. I was my […]
Mexican, but don’t enjoy Taco Bell
Eric Vazquez, Baltimore, MD. When I meet new people I’m always asked where I’m from. I get asked if I was born in Mexico, I get asked if I eat tacos and such. Not every Hispanic is from Mexico. At this point I’m fine with it but it still irritates me a little. I have […]
Why so petty? Pale Blue Dot.
Raj Malhotra, College Park, MD. “Are you the IT guy?” or “Does your family own a 7-eleven?” If I bother to take offense on all these questions and stereotypes of my race I will have countless enemies and no friends. I prefer to take these questions as a conversation starter and get to know the […]
They assume my wife’s the nanny.
Sean Robertson, Kensington, MD. People impressed with how my wife handles our children have stopped her on the street to ask what agency she was hired through. I suppose it’s an improvement from the Dominican Republic where hotel security tried to prevent me from “bringing in a local prostitute.”
Race is FICTIONAL. Human is FACT.
Vonna, Annapolis, MD.
Never Enough Of A Particular Race
Yema Pizzuto, MD. Have you ever been told, “Really? But you don’t look…” Or “Oh yeah, I see how you’re…because you look…” Or the ‘Ol time favorite, “I’m sorry, I thought you spoke Spanish.” Yeah, not every mixed person is of Spanish decent. About the word “mixed”, it doesn’t imply that I’m just black and […]
I’m her mom, not her nanny
Kathryn Walters-Conte, Silver Spring, MD.
How can she be your mom
Laura Clarksville, MD Being Black we come in all shades. My mom is extremely fair-skin; my dad was very dark. I look like my dad. Blacks and whites do a double take when my mom and I are together and I call her mom.
Race, not real, has real implications.
Elizabeth Smith, Catonsville, MD.
Is it because I am white?
Ryan Muldoon, Severna Park, MD. I like playing basketball but no one picks me.
Pass me by. I am invisible
Charles M Reynolds, JR Annapolis, MD
White males are people too
John Chaney, Silver Spring, MD. Being a white male growing up in predominantly black and spanish schools and neighborhoods all you ever hear is hate on white males, never called men always called white boy. Constantly belittled and disrespected for no reason at all other than the events of the past before any of us […]
Human
Eddie Releford, Towson, MD. Towson University Your race doesn’t define who you are. You define who you are. Where all human, just different shades of beautiful. One day… people will realize were all the same. Until then fight hate with love.
When cut, we all bleed red.
Susan Jackson, Baltimore, MD. The world is broken. May love piece it back together.
My beautiful black boys deserve HOPE!
Maria Roach Bowie, MD My children are too young to understand racism. They see people in three categories: family, friends, neighbors. But I see the moms who fearfully pull their children off the playground when my family arrives. There are good people and bad. Judge by actions, not by skin color!
College changed everything, for the worse
Lindsay Baltimore, MD
T.V. makes us think we’re there.
Steve Broache Baltimore, MD
My actions aren’t different from yours.
Navid Mehrabkhani, Hyattsville, MD. The purpose of choosing these words involves how my race impact and influence the ways others see me. People assume that’s because of my race, because I’m from Iran, people assume I’m a terrorist. I believe my race should not influence the way others interpret my life or my actions.
In a hole. Can’t climb out.
Malaika, Suitland, MD. In 2014 I decided to move “down South” because I wanted to escape the higher cost of living (and the crazy, global-warming-induced snowstorms) of the Northeast. I thought moving down South would be a financially pragmatic, yet exciting, thing to do. I found a job down there making decent money and then […]
“You are white. I blame you.”
Mike B., Baltimore, MD. Time and time again, I have been approached by someone of a minority group with the statement “You have oppressed my people for centuries. Last time I checked, I have only been alive for 22 of those years. These people think because of skin tone and articulate speech that I had […]
The key to my locked identity.
Jagjot Battu, MD.
My husband and I won it.
Victoria True, Bethesda, MD. 15 years of my Miscegenated marriage have come and gone. I married a man who is beyond color blind. Case in point, I came by his place 1 month before we were getting married, and joked there are xxx,xx1 inter-racial couples in the US, and on June 12th there will be […]
Why should I have to die?
Antwan Lester, Baltimore, MD. Other people say racist things all the time some people tell me to die, but i don’t cry or reply I just walk away and stay positive because this life is mine not his and people do all the wrong things without thinking about the kids who could be in danger […]
AfroLatins are not seen in textooks
Omar Eaton-Martinez, Oxon Hill, MD. Afro Diasporic communities need more opportunity to build coalition around blackness.
I’m white; where do I confess?
Anonymous, Annapolis, MD. Shouldn’t blacks learn something about white attitudes. I’m often surprised by what we hear about whites.
Color Doesn’t Make You A Criminal
Joshua Edwards, Baltimore, MD. I’ve heard many stories of police brutality on young black men. I am worried as a young man who is African American. I constantly wonder if I will be confronted and injured later in my life. I always think about how I will deal with that that situation in a way […]
What ever happened to Freddie Tilghman
Edward M Moriarty, Clearwater, FL. A profound change to my thinking of right and wrong, when a FRIEND was removed from a picture of my friends and myself that appeared in my hometown newspaper in 1959 rural Maryland.
My Aunt won’t talk to me…
Rachel, MD. …because a past boyfriend of mine was of a different race then mine. I was lucky to grow up in such a diverse community that when a racist comment was made it was shot down even faster. In high school, even though everyone had their groups of friends, race truly did not matter. […]
I’m Not Racist, Stop Saying That
Charles, Brandywine, MD. I am 49 years with no White Friends. I have never invited a White person to my home. I work with White people all day every day, I have served beside White people in the military, and I play softball with 95% White people every weekend and holiday, but I have never […]
Mom placed newborn in front row
John Butterworth Boston, MA My mother has just graduated from nursing school in Boston and moved to Maryland in the mid ’50’s with my dad, who was in the Army at the time. Mom found a job at a nearby city hospital in the maternity ward. Mom placed a beautiful newborn in the front row […]
I’m Brazilian. Am I still white?
Kati, Nottingham, MD. I did not know what white privilege was before coming to the US. I definitely see how I have it easier here than people with different skin colors. But I will be honest. I have had a hard time being told all the time that I cannot understand hardship because of my […]
Not Latino enough, Not American enough
Maria Lopez, Baltimore, MD. I remember one time I was really sick and was rushed to the ER, while registering the nurse told me “you have very good English,” which I responded as “probably because I was born here.” I may have been 13 or 14. In high school, one of the lunch ladies who […]
Everyone loves fried chicken and Kool Aid
Claire Tomaszewski College Park, MD University of Maryland
Last name Smith? But you’re Asian.
Trish Broome Baltimore, MD My father is white and my mother is Korean, so I grew up with my father’s last name, Smith. On the first day of teaching orientation they called my full name, Patricia Smith, so I raised my hand. I clearly remember the woman sitting next to me say, “You’re Patricia Smith? […]
Racism still exists, you can’t pretend.
Rachel Matheson, Bethesda, MD. I’m a member of Operation Understanding DC (OUDC) Class 20.
I am white but not racist.
Stephanie DeRoose, Baltimore, MD. During a service trip to Washington DC, I encountered many nice and talkative people while I walked the streets. I made a comment to another volunteer and her response was, “It’s because they’re black isn’t it?” I had never experienced such rude commentary and didn’t know what to say. My comment […]
While I don’t notice, others do.
Stephanie Berry, Landover, MD.
What you don’t see, others suffer.
Carrie Allan, Takoma Park, MD. I’m always amazed by white people who make an argument that racism is in the past. How can any of us make that claim without living the experience? Recently I watched an online discussion about the English language and the absurdities of political correctness in academia devolve into an argument […]
I am Both, Not Just One.
Laura N. Weston, Baltimore, MD. About 80% of the time people assume (mostly men) I am Puerto Rican even though I am half Caucasian and half African American. I stress to everyone who thinks it is important enough to ask me what I am that I am Mixed or Biracial and I state with what. […]
A jumble of diverse opinionated people
Esra Yagoub College Park, MD University of Maryland
Pharaoh gives you leave to depart.
Andrew Joshua Anderson, Baltimore, MD.
Choose to love, not to hate
Jake Weinischke, Bethesda, MD.
Sons. Educated. Childless. Lawful. Doesn’t matter?
Robin Crawford Mitchellville, MD I fret and worry daily about all 3 of my sons, despite the fact all are grown men. They are college educated (and graduated), have no criminal records or children out of wedlock, work everyday and are well spoken. Yet at the end of the day, people see BLACK and minimize […]
They’re Shocked When I Speak Spanish
T.W., Baltimore, MD. I am White, non-Hispanic, but I go to Mexico on a regular basis so I have worked really hard to speak decent Spanish. I’m not fluent, but I can get around, and I have a believable accent. So back in the U.S., there are times when knowing Spanish comes in handy. I […]
“Well you’re not like super Hispanic”
Christina Aviles, Bethesda, MD. “You don’t talk like most Hispanic girls do, you don’t wear your hair like them, you don’t listen to the same music as them, you’re just not, well you’re not like super Hispanic”. This is what my white college roommate said to me during our first semester of freshman year when […]
I am white, but not privileged
Stephanie, Baltimore, MD.
I’m afraid for My Black Sons
Tiffany G., Essex, MD.
Mama didn’t raise me that way.
Jim Baxter, Hyattsville, MD.
Honorable, proud. never-ending. I am
W. Vines, Upper Marlboro, MD.
Diversity’s a condition. Equity’s a goal.
Kevin Moreno, Baltimore, MD. When they happen at all, discussions about race too often devolve into indictments or defensiveness about one’s individual experience. But combating racism has as much or more to do with examining legal, policy, and other systemic structures than with changing individuals’ minds or attitudes.
You’re pretty for a dark skin girl
Imani B., Baltimore, MD. So are all dark skin girls ugly and I’m the exception? Woukd i be ugly if i was lighter? Your insulting me. Please don’t.
You still have to be better.
Kimberly Walker, Beltsville, MD.
“M’ pa rele blanc,” I replied.
Emily S., Baltimore, MD. A phrase in Haitian Kreyol which means, literally, “I’m not called ‘White’” or “My name is not ‘White”. It was a phrase I became accustom to shouting back to calls of “Blanc, Blanc, Blanc” everywhere I went, by Haitian children and adults alike. I almost hadn’t noticed my skin color up […]
Red skin. Reservation. Relegated. Re-appropriated. Reimagined. Resolute.
Faith Roessel, Bethesda, MD. Georgetown Day I am Navajo Indian, born and raised on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. I now live in the “bubble” and within the “beltway” of Washington, DC with my non Indian husband and my three incredible boys. No one can imagine the challenges we face day in and day out […]
Faces of TRCP
In The News
Peabody Award
SPOTLIGHT SCHOOL
Recent Race Cards
