I want to help, not hurt.
Laura James,
Mobile, AL.
I want to be ok being white, but I’m not. I’ve been haunted for decades by a dream in which I was weighed in the balance and found wanting by a well-dressed group of African-American churchgoers.
I proudly own my multi-racial ancestry.
Kimmberlie Sims
Mobile, AL
I’m more than just a color
Jasmyn Joseph,
Lithonia, GA.
I’m from Mobile, Al….. Bible Belt city, unfortunate my grandparents where witch doctors. My granny is half Black-American and Native Cherokee and grandfather was said to be Haitian. While my dad is a creole and Black-American mix. Yet, with some many mixtures in the boiling pot, I’m usually all the time mistaken for South African. So when I tell people my ethnicity, they make this comment “why are you so dark then,” and I say ” darker the berry sweeter the juice!”
You don’t look Latina at all!
Maria Victoria Salazar,
Mobile, AL.
Hi! My heritage is a little more complicated than others’, especially here in the Deep South. I have roots in Mexico and Costa Rica (which of course are from deeper roots in Spain), Italy, and a dash of Ireland from my great-grandmother. However, according to the culture my family and I participate in most, we are Latin American. That’s cool and all, but it poses an identification issue for me, my sisters, and some of my cousins. I’ve lived in Alabama my whole life. And while I like some of the perks of living down here, some other things piss me off. Like, why does everyone need to belong in a certain category? Why do I have to look like I belong to a certain people? And when people find out that I’m not like them, why do they have to focus on the differences when, in fact, we have so much in common? Yea, it’s kinda weird down here. Most people don’t think Latinas should be light-skinned, which I totally am, but Latinas come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. They’re surprised when they find out that “this white girl” is pretty good at soccer, or has nice curves, or can dance! But when I make it known that I am Latina, they also are surprised that I have a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a well paying job that doesn’t require manual labor. The only thing they don’t seem surprised about is that I have a sexy black boyfriend, who has direct roots to Nigeria. But even though it seems like I’m ranting on and on, really I’m very happy. I can be whoever I want! I don’t need racial barriers or expectations to fulfill! And that is the coolest thing about being multiracial/multicultural! So, peace out America and let the world know how beautiful it is to be different.
Caucasian, trying not to be white
Anonymous
Mobile, AL
I was born and raised Caucasian, though of course, like most Caucasians, I was referred to and referred to myself as “white.” But like so many, I found myself attracted to African American culture, and, generally, more accepted by African Americans.
As I’ve grown, becoming an instructor of English and therefore, an observer of language, I began to appreciate the inherent privilege offered by the label “white.” I cam to understand that “white” as an appellation used to describe a culture or ethnicity, only begins to appear with the advent of European slavery. Prior to this, Europeans referred to themselves by their nationalities. But to separate themselves from those they enslaved, and to insure the rightness of slavery, they came to refer to themselves as “white,” a term that had implications of purity and innocence, and defined those they enslaved, Africans, as “black,” the opposite of white, and therefore, impure and guilty, in need of “civilization” and “conversion” to Christianity. I note also that Europeans and their descendants often like to claim the intellectual precision ad exactness of their culture, yet, most Caucasians’ skin, when put up against, say, white paper, will stand out. Likewise, few people of African descent will blend into a sheet of Black paper.
We live in a nation where, because of the hue of my skin, I will be allowed to go into certain areas, take part in certain events, and NOT experience many pressures that darker skinned people will. I have a privilege due to my perceived “whiteness.”
In my writing, what I try to do is expose that “whiteness,” that privilege. It seems to me that the essence of the “white” experience is to ignore whiteness, to claim it does not matter.
I hope that by being conscious of whiteness and its privilege, I can expose and, possibly, subvert it. I can do nothing about my ethnic descent: I am a Caucasian of French, German, British, and Scot – Irish descent.
I can try to not be “white.”
There’s no such thing as race.
Dustin
Mobile, AL
Race only exists in the minds of people who believe in race. In reality we are all individuals with our own individual traits, not group representatives stamped with group traits. Race is not a real thing. Stop making it one.
White privilege doesn’t work for Asians
Martin Smith
Mobile, AL
We are told that the wealth and functionality of Whites and the poverty and dysfunction of non-Whites comes from “White privilege.” Yet it doesn’t work for Asians, who as a group are as wealthy as Whites. How did they overcome racism like that, and why did the Blacks not? The Jews are another example of a persecuted people who were not held back. In fact, as soon as they were emancipated, they became much MORE successful that the dominant group.. 29% of Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish.
