“Are you Irish?” I don’t know.
Andee Bateman, Noblesville, IN. As an adoptee with flaming red hair, I was asked this question frequently. I found out at 47 that I am...
I look white. But I’m not.
Anoymous, USA. I’m 1/4 white genetically. But I look white–light eyes, fair skin, freckles–despite the fact that my full-siblings don’t. My best friend is half...
Where will we wash colored clothes?
LaLana Martin Gold Beach, OR When I was 9 years old, our mixed-race family (Asian/Pacific Islander and German/French) was on vacation in the southeast. With...
I’m 50-50, they only see black.
Autumn Battani, Los Angeles, CA. People only identify me as black. And that doesn’t make sense to me. Even when I was little, and we...
This man has your daughter
Karen Button, Middletown, CT. Phone call from the neighborhood grocer – followed by my husband on the line asking me to come down to the...
Why can’t you be beige, mommy?
Janai Leeb, Val Verde, CA. My 5 year old, bi-racial daughter is just discovering that her family may be a little different. I’m a black...
Witnessing people confusing anecdote with fact
Deborah Robinson, Los Angeles, CA. I grew up in profoundly white Eugene, Oregon, where I’d laugh at banners emblazoned, CELEBRATE DIVERSITY. “What, as long as...
My baby is black AND white.
Karin Coyne, Pittsburgh, PA. My sweet man is black and I am white. Our baby girl is both. but the world is a complicated place…...
I fear for my family’s wellbeing.
Shannon M., Killeen, TX. My fiance is black. My son is mixed. At THREE years old my son has already encountered racism. Every time my...
Bi-racial means you are nobody’s baby.
Silvija Singh, Pittsburgh, PA. Unlike my sibs, I do not look white, altho I have a white mother. I do not get treated like a...
