Boy From America’s Heartland, Indian American
Rahul Iyer, Mesa , AZ. I graduated high school from Dixon IL, a small town halfway between Rockford and Moline, in the Northwestern part of...
Living liberal in a conservative home.
Quinn, Lake Elsinore, CA Both my parents are very conservative when it comes to politics and everything. I grew up learning from them, but once...
Did you grow up wearing shoes?
Jessica Anderson, Denver, CO. I grew up in the Appalachian mountains of East Tennessee, but I now live in Colorado. People always ask ridiculous questions...
No Problems for Private School Kids
Alissa Hodges, Chattanooga, TN There is a common misconception in my city that white, middle class, private school kids have no problems. In actuality, there...
I’m a Bohemian refugee from Negroland.
Opeyemi Parham, Dummerston, VT. Both my Middle Class, African slave descent parents were artists. So my life had shadows from Margot Jefferson’s Negroland, but great...
They don’t believe racial injustice exists.
Dannielle Kerstetter, Elizabethtown, PA. I come from a white, middle-class family in rural Pennsylvania. My family does not believe that people of color do not...
You’re American? Were you born here?
Araceli, Pasadena, CA. No I wasn’t born here. Does it really matter? My family moved to this country when I was 2.5 yrs old. I...
Dear Ebenezer Baptist: I still cringe
Elizabeth Rodriguiz, Ypsilanti, MI. In the early 2000s I tagged along with my husband to his professional society meeting in Atlanta. While he went to...
Hero. Musical Genius. Jazz is color.
Mark Lynn Honeycutt, Knoxville, TN. I’m a white, middle class, born and raised East Tennessean. But also a musician. Well, drummer. And my heroes have...
White privileged with a blended family
Anonymous, Saint Paul, MN. I grew up northern CA in a very middle class well to do with family that was racially homogeneous with a...
Old white woman, get away with anything.
Kadi Johnson, Pueblo, CO. As a middle aged, middle class, overweight, white woman, I know that the police etc. cut me a lot more slack...
Deconstructing “whiteness” won’t change my skin.
Mariel Rieland, Seattle, WA. I’m about as stereotypically European-American as you can get… Born to an upper-middle-class family, raised in the suburbs, graduating from a...
Honey, you must come from money.
Christine Faris Lufkin, TX Actually, no. Yes, I was blessed to come from a middle class family. And yes, I’ve been blessed to travel the world....
White Privilege doesn’t exist for me
Justin Banks, Mission Viejo, CA. I was born into an average middle class family that is dominantly white. I know that my father was born...
Typical white, middle-class male…privileged
Greg Miodonski, Houghton, MI. Growing up in a mostly white, middle-class neighborhood, I took a lot for granted. I never realized how much privilege I...
“Act like you’ve been here before.”
Jessica Johnson, Long Beach, CA. My grandparents took pride in not being a “typical” black family. I grew up in Prince George’s County, MD (about...
