Rural Alaska, six blacks, my family.
Lydia Taylor Memphis, TN I was born and raised in Alaska. When I was 4, my father got out of the Air Force and accepted...
Brown girl rejected with red blood
Anonymous, USA. Grew up as the only little brown girl in class, always having to explain why my hair grew up to the skies when...
Chased and called Jap in Detroit.
Joyce Fidler, Toluca Lake, CA. In 1956 I was in first grade, my mother was Japanese-Hawaiian, and I knew nothing about WWII. I didn’t realize...
Black-white man; white black man
Kirl T. Lawson, Oakland, CA. I have so many tales to share about my experience with my color (or lack of “definitive color recognition”). growing...
I wish the voice would stop.
Al, Atlanta, GA. I was born 51 years ago. I grew up with a father who would definitely be considered racist today, but was probably...
The fiction of whiteness imperils humanity.
Evan Sorem, San Diego, CA. I am a human being. I have lived nearly all my life in California. My ancestors have lived in California,...
Black man, white girl kissing; beautifully scared.
Tracey Rae Palmer, Myrtle Beach, SC. I was told never to kiss a n***** or get close to them; they would only rob you or...
Our Outer Appearance Does Not Matter
I grew up in a very divided household when it comes down to the words race and racism. When I 7 my parents divorced, I...
Hillbilly – the wrong kind of white.
TR Kelley, Swisshome, OR “White trash” is a hip cultural joke. “N*****” is “hate speech”. Why?
White People Tears Are My Lipton’s
Alex Miller, New York, NY. White people. Some of you, not all… please notice that I said SOME…some of you have been wondering, for a...
Utopia is a nonexistent colorblind world
V. Anne Spence, Powhatan, VA. Would I have been called a “N****” if my skin were white”? Growing up in El Barrio and the Bronx...
You can no longer dehumanize me.
Lynn Keane, Canada I live at the intersection of race + gender inequality. When I was a little girl, my mother’s coworker saw us shopping...
Double standards and mutual racial fragility
Lily, UK I don’t understand why people on all sides of the racial debate, despite wanting equality, suddenly splutter and get defensive when people criticize...
From a white teenage girl’s perspective
Victoria N. Fortson, GA My ancestors came to America just like many others. Just because I am white, does not mean my family “owned” “slaves”....
Can I say N****r around you?
Dylan Givens, San Francisco, CA Because I was raised in predominantly white schools and have almost-all white friends, people seem to think that I don’t...
We experience, we teach, we grow.
Eli Russell, Austin, TX. As a writer, these six words are something I’ve said before. I lend it here to hopefully add to the growing...
I’ve freed myself from being “N*****”
Lamar Johnson, Knoxville, TN. I used to get so upset when someone used N***** to describe me. I then realized that I got upset because...
Free speaking teens, changing relational space?
Tara Saltzman, Evergreen, CO. My teens arguing in favor of de-degrading(?) the word n*****, inspired by conviction that changing the influence of words (no longer...
