Slaton Anthony
Mount Vernon, IA

My last ancestor came to America before 1800 all from England, France and Germany. My ancestors fought and died in almost every American war, I was raised in the Cookson Hills of rural Oklahoma and believed that I was part of the American white culture. While attending college in Oklahoma, I realized I was not white, but white trash. I worked hard and after graduating law school, I was no longer white trash after I had changed my most discriminatory feature, my accent. Eventually leaving Oklahoma for Kansas City and Iowa, I realized I was again no longer white but was “southern hillbilly.” This process along with coming out as a gay man had taught me that “white” is not a single race or culture and discrimination occurs constantly within people and the decision is to become a victim of such discrimination and resent it or to fight against it and find power in that fight. This feeling of discrimination or always being the “outsider” as fueled my lift.