Friend James Green Jackson State Dead
Andy Shores
Starkville, MS
A track star, nicknamed ‘winged feet’ for his prowess in his chosen sport — he worked in a small grocery store near Jackson State — I knew him from there –we were both high school athletes but at different schools. His death was a turning point in how I viewed the world and especially the world in Mississippi.
More Information on The Killing: Darius Tornes, Every time I go to the store people be keep on eye on me. They follow me around. I’m just trying to buy some now or laters. The people who work at the store tell me to take out my pockets to see if I’m trying to steal things. I even got the cops called on me because I wouldn’t take my pockets out to let the workers look at them. Not everyone black person is a thug theft etc. I always pay for things when i go to the store. My mom didn’t raise me like that. My mom raised me to be myself. Christian Armour, I’ve often myself have asked myself many times before why people fear black men so much. As a young black man myself, the last thing I would want is for another individual to be afraid of me simply because of my race. However, as I explored this topic further, I’ve come to understand that people fear black men because of the dangers we pose when we decide to try and be successful in a world that wasn’t created for us to be successful in. People see us as a threat not because of our skin complexion, but because of the fact that many of us won’t conform to the racial stereotypes and lifestyles that have been put in place. The expectation is that a black man is going to grow up to become some type of criminal or unlaw abiding citizen, however, when the opposite happens and a black man chooses to try to be successful, such as by becoming an entrepreneur or working high-paying jobs that not many black men work, that is when the fear arises. The fear of black men arises when a black man doesn’t conform to who a black man is supposed to be in American society. Claudasheia Buck, My spirit carries good energy. Anybody I’ve ever come across has acknowledged the fact that I’m such caring and genuine person. I’m a supportive friend and we all need somebody sometimes. I’m cheerful and really goofy , overall fun to be around. I was taught that you never know what the next person is going through, so it’s good to be kind to your peers. I give even if it’s my last and look for nothing in return. If nobody know nothing else about me, they know that I try to bring all my friends closer to God as well. We all need him especially in times like these, so I try to spread the word as a source of encouragement for the ones I care about. As a military brat I was naïve, sheltered. It was only when my father was stationed in the deep South that “RACE” entered my vocabulary. I was shocked as a 15 year old (back in ’95) to see that churches, schools, hangouts, even the local beauty pageants were segregated! Blew my mind. So much emphasis on the color of ones skin when we all bleed red and what matters most in a (wo)man comes from deep within. Rebekah Bickford, My white family moved from Indiana to Mississippi in 1977, when I was 8 years old. Our family was seen as “Northern Yankees” and we were not welcomed by many in the white community. The black children were kind to me when I entered school and quickly became my friends. I didn’t know about the colorline or the Civil War for that matter. The other white children in my neighborhood began harassing me and calling me names, and actually referencing the Civil War in their comments. I went home and read about the Civil War in the encyclopedia. The next time I was confronted about the Civil War, a boy who was several years older than me said, “The only reason you Yankees won the war was that you had more people.” I replied, “The reason we had more people was that we were right.” He was so angry that he shoved me and I fell into a ditch. My friendships with the black children at school continued, despite the fact that one girl’s mother came to our home and told my parents that I was going to get her daughter killed. Soon thereafter, our house was vandalized. Racial slurs were spray painted on the stone facade and windows were broken. The realtor who had sold my parents the house came to tell us that there was no way that we could stay in that town. The town purchased the house from my parents so that we could leave, and we moved an hour away. “Love sees no color”. “What the world needs now…”. Pretty much says it. After moving to rural Mississippi from New York to teach Spanish at the high school level, I’m frequently met with confusion as to how I have an “ethnic” name and can teach Spanish, but I have fair skin and European features. When people ask me, “Are you from Vicksburg?” they really mean to say, “I know you’re definitely not from here because you don’t sound like us, but I don’t know where you’re from because you’re too white to teach Spanish, but are not white enough by my imaginary standards, so I have to ask because none of this makes any sense to me.” I have a very strong, very proud cultural heritage; I’m a North American Mestizo, 50% Native American (Creek and Cherokee; my tribal enrollment/citizenship is with the Echota Band of the Eastern Cherokee Nation) & 50% a mashup of Scots-Latin-AfricanAmerican-Welsh-french. I self ID as Native American, because I am, culturally, legal, socially, that’s the most marginalized part of my heritage…& at 2% of the America population we need the numbers &/or multiethnic-mixed race. Appearance-wise, I’m taken for everything from Native Hawiian to Middle-Eastern, though usually I’m seen as puro Latino. Tara They go to the highest scoring elementary school in the state of Mississippi which happens to be 98% African- American. My kids are white and they don’t care about skin color and because of their school probably never will, I hope. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear… I John 4:18 She’s White in a Black Body….. Shared race is not a qualifier of being a mother to a child. Some of us birth kids who don’t look like us, and it’s hurtful for people to question our status. When I saw people trying to figure out if a white mother with brown daughters had adopted them, I was upset because people’s minds more easily go to adoption than to interracial relationship to explain a photo like that even when there’s physical resemblance. It’s bothered me that even in 2014, it was not even in the realm of possibility in some people’s minds that these kids are biologically hers. They saw her skin and automatically assigned her the role as adopter while minority moms with fair kids are too often assumed to be the nanny. As a black mom with a fair-skinned biracial child, I know it’s hurtful from the mom perspective. I can’t imagine it’s nice from the children’s perspective to have strangers seeming to question the validity of their families. I know people are not meaning to be malicious. I’ve had people use it as a conversation opener to tell me about their family members who don’t look like they belong, but the fact is by bringing it up, you’re telling someone you think their family doesn’t belong together, at least visually, and that’s no good. Not all families have matching skin, but that doesn’t open the floor to ask insensitive questions: http://liciabobesha.com/2014/05/family-not-match/ Nkrumah, The term “White privilege” is not about blame. It is about getting people to recognize that there are some advantages to not being a person of color. For example a White man doesn’t have to worry about being labeled the “angry black man” if he gets upset in a public setting. You can not act a color. You can not be a color. Just because I speak as though I have read a book once in my life does not make me instantly “an Oreo”. Please stop.
http://www.heroism.org/class/1970/green.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/051400-03.htm
All eyes on a black boy
Jackson, MS.Truth behind fear of Black men
Starkville, MS
Be the Light in Someone’s Darkness
Jackson, MS
Racial stereotypes…killing mankind…hearts blind?
Amber Jackson Baswell,
Columbus, MS.Yankee child crossed South’s colorline. Paid.
Baldwin, ME. 
The experience of “White African Americans”
Kevin Hayes,
Ackerman, MS.
Speak Spanish? You don’t look “Mexican.”
Kristiane Valenza,
Vicksburg, MS.
“Generic Brown” is my passport everywhere.
Gil L. Pettigrew, MS,
The Federated States of Micronesia.
Rather than getting annoyed by that, as some multiethnics are, I embrace being, in Hollywood speak “generic brown”; it means I have a global-face, a phenotypic in with folks from lots of different backgrounds. Its been especially useful living in my diverse, polyglot home-city of Miami, FL, & traveling in Latin America, the Caribbean (I, for example don’t often pay “Gringo Prices”), & I’ve found it an advantage since taking a position as the natural science instructor at The College of Micronesia’s Kosrae Campus, on the island of Kosrae, in The Federated States of Micronesia…I find folks a bit more open, a bit more upfront with me than I’ve observed they are with many more obvious Westerners, since they frequently tell me they initially assumed I was from one of the neighboring islands.Why my kids are the minority
Jackson, MS
Ignorance and Fear are racism’s parents.
Allen D. Jenkins,
Gulfport, MS.
She’s White in a Black body….
Cooper Shell,
Jackson, TN.
That is what has ALWAYS been said to describe me—since I was at least 12 years old. My name is Cooper Shell, and I grew up in Choctaw County, MS. I hail from a blended family which is very typical in my town. I suppose that I should dress, speak, and behave in a certain manner because I am an African American female in the deep South; I don’t…at least not in the manner most people expect. I prefer to wear business suits, pearls, and pumps; Paramore is one of my favorite bands. My natural hair has always looked more like a weave, and I am incredibly articulate. However, society says that I should wear Jordans and Sean Jean, aspire to be Beyonce while dancing to Lil Wayne, and wear weaves as I speak the latest slang and broken English. I had African American and Caucasian friends as a child and teenager. But apparently my speech and preferences just seemed to be more “White” than “Black”. As an adult, I have gotten quite use to my clients and business contacts assuming I am male because of my name. However, I am never prepared for the awkward stammers, stares, and hearing “Are you sure you’re Cooper?” once those people finally meet me face to face. It is even more disheartening to meet people who make incredibly racist comments on the phone, only to learn they were speaking to a “Black” all along.
Don’t ask why families don’t match
Alicia Barnes,
Starkville, MS.“White privilege” is not about blame.
Hattiesburg, MS.
Why do you always act white?
Anika Moore
Gulfport, MS
Melisa,
