Paula Gormley Greensboro, NC I am white. My children are from two separate worlds: United States and Tanzania. We are living in the US, but I am grooming them for lives in which they, children of privilege, will have an obligation to help their African brothers and sisters. I always tell people that they have […]
Taught all wrong, now teaching others
Steve Jones, Durham, NC. I grew up in a segregated community and the concept that African-Americans (of course, not the word that was used) were inferior. It took a long time to get out of that mindset and even longer to acknowledge the privilege that comes with my white skin. It’s a privilege to be […]
White and raised by a man.
Roger Tryone Williams, Huntersville, NC. My name is Roger Tyrone Williams and I’m white. Additionally, I was raised by a black man. If you want to learn more, just ask.
Code-switching: an asset, not a crime.
Molly Wanless Chapel Hill, NC To develop and maintain respect in my middle school English classroom, I teach that there are many “right ways” to talk and write. With technology and society being what they are today, no one owns or “rules” the conventions of our language. My students understand that their language and mine […]
Grateful for Painful Cultureshock Down South
Audrey A Fischer, Wilson, NC. When I lived in Virginia Beach, I didn’t notice race. Up north, it was so institutionalized that I barely knew any People of Colour. When I came down south in the eighth grade, I suddenly was the largest group, but our school was 60 or so percent minority. I was […]
Chinese adoptee with a white name
Jennifer Charmley, Charlotte, NC. My dad is white American and my mom is a Chinese immigrant, and I am their adopted daughter from China who grew up in Seattle feeling half-white half-Chinese. As a customer on the phone I’m treated as a white woman, while in person I’m frequently asked what part of Asia I’m […]
Do I look like a Twinkie?
Jacob Tanes, Durham, NC. A stereotype that people call the Asian race is Twinkie because Twinkies are yellow on the outside and white on the inside.
Bleach your skin to be white
Walker Perry, Mooresville, NC
Oblivious to white privilege until educated.
Haley Perryman, Mooresville, NC
So was she born in Africa?
Anneliese, Mooresville, NC I am a sister to three black siblings that my family adopted a few years ago. One time while walking through the mall with one of my sisters, she was only about 2 years old, we were stopped and asked if she was from Africa? It is so surprising how some people […]
No big honker? You no Jew
Ilana Israel, Elon, NC. Elon University
Not Blind, Just Free of Hate.
Sarah M. Rebillard, Wilmington, NC I will never say that I am blind to the skin color of others, nor that I don’t see them as different from myself. A person’s perceived race is a fact of their existence and their reality and is a trait to be loved not ignored. People of color deserve […]
I’m Appalachian–it’s an invisible ethnicity
Catherine Vance Agrella, Asheville, NC. I’m white, and by definition am associated with some of the worst perpetrators of racism. But I also come from deep Appalachian Scots-Irish roots and have a clear ethnic identity. I do know what it feels like to be mocked for my speech, or thought of as a dumb hillbilly, […]
Hair: Long–I’m Cherokee. Short–European.
The Rev. Dr. Laura Mae Johnson New Bern, NC [stumble]
Some Dogs Just Don’t Have Names
Glenn Richardson Wilmington, NC Every spring we would travel from Washington DC to Oktoc Mississippi to help my Dad work the cows. He had about 200 head to push through the mucky shoot to the cattle squeeze where they were tested for brucelllosis, wormed, weighed, pregnancy checked by an arm length plastic disposable glove to […]
You aren’t gonna make it anywhere
Jaylyn, Charlotte, NC.
White, Korean, southern, AND atheist
Melanie Mills, NC. I am 1/4 Korean, but I only look caucasian. I live in the “Bible Belt”, but I am an atheist. I am so much more than what I seem. I am so much more than just WHITE.
My history is only slavery! Why!
King Kellz, Fayetteville, NC. We only learn what America has taught us about our specific race.
The plantation haunts my gay marriage.
Erik Shawn Frampton, Charlotte, NC. I am the descendant of a line of plantation owners in South Carolina. As a gay man, my upcoming marriage will finally occur on our 20th anniversary together. My larger southern family struggles to see my identity as sacred, just as they struggle still to see minority life as sacred. […]
Don’t assume I’m White, or Straight.
Jim Downey, Wilmington, NC.
Black Vietnamese. Speak spanish. Eat rice.
Hao Nguyen, Durham, NC. I wanted to say… Black Vietnamese. Speak english, spanish, vietnamese. Eat suong kho, pho, and corn dogs. Words that describe my mixed race/heritage children. Having to choose only 6 words, I had to put them in order of words that most describe them. Having to choose what comes first — black […]
He stood. She sat. For equality.
Linda Leigh Hargrove, Concord, NC. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the Lincoln Memorial and made a game-changing speech. More than 250,000 people stood in the audience that August day, including Rosa Parks who sat her way into civil rights history. It is because of their work that I have the freedom, as a […]
Sadly frustrated at the backward slide.
Pam Lepley, High Point, NC.
Race, the easiest way to discriminate.
AnnAdèle Lloyd, Asheville, NC. Appearance is always how we make our initial judgement of someone on first meeting.
Your family’s not inbred…are you?
Katie R. Phillips, Green Mountain, NC. I might be white, but growing up in the Southern Applachians is definitely its own ethnic identity. I didn’t truly understand this until I went to college, and brought friends home with me for the first time. One of my friends actually asked me if my family was inbred […]
Being Hispanic is not a crime
Navarro, Charlotte, NC.
Not from here, not from there.
Adriana Caicedo Hart , Indian Trail, NC. I was born in Colombia, I came to USA in 2003. My physical features, my accent and my skin color say I am not born in American, they say I belong to a different culture; but when I go back to my home country for a visit, I […]
Why’d you invite the white guy
Mike, Rockingham, NC.
God created race people created racism
Eric Evans, Tarboro, NC. Our God-given differences are meant to be appreciated not to keep us separated. As a Native American man I live in a world that doesn’t know what to think of me outside of a reservation or the pages of a history book.
Just like a ‘lectric clock ticking
Jimmy Hair, Charlotte, NC. A hard working black man I worked construction with 44 years ago used to say this. He meant it about his steady and prodigious work output, but I think of it now in terms of the slow but steady progress of improved race relations.
What’s the point when color fades
Spencer, Wilmington, NC. Everyone dies. And when we do die, there will be no color, just bones and dirt. It’s funny that race is so important when it doesn’t last forever. We only have a short time on the earth and yet we spend so much time dividing ourselves based on something superficial, that no […]
Look, another stupid white guy commercial
Gary D Patterson Gastonia, NC Here comes the stupid husband, boyfriend, tradesman, etc. in a commercial. He is almost always white. Why?
Didn’t process my privilege affects EVERYTHING
Mattie L, NC.
All races should be treated equally.
Marci Russell, Durham, NC. I don’t think people understand how serious the racist comments they say are. Even if they’re just joking, It’s hurtful. I wish people would just think before they act. If people just thought about what they are going to say before they say it, I believe the world would change one […]
Ashamed and embarrassed to be black.
Nobody, Durham, NC. I would change my race to anything non-black if I could. I don’t think white people understand how limiting it is to only be seen as a color and not as a person. When you’re black you can be the Scary Black Person, the Angry Black Man/Woman, the Thug, the Smart/Articulate Black […]
Black, Female, Spiritual, Dynamic, Resilient, Thankful
Pamela Bivens, M.A., Durham, NC. Awesome project!!
Asian-Indian, I cherish the American Dream
Vipin Gupta, Charlotte, NC.
I’m a bridge between two worlds.
Jazmin Whitmore, Asheville, NC. I am the result of two worlds but I was only raised in one. My father was Jamaican and my mother was European/Native American mix. My mother raised me. Although it was not her intention she raised me to be “white”. I did not realize how devoid I was of my […]
I thought I knew, but didn’t.
Erica Tjelta, Spartanburg, SC. After growing up and living in rural and small-town Wisconsin for my first thirty-six years of my life–it was a shocking eye-opener to move to the racially diverse and racism-afflicted major city of Charlotte, North Carolina. My seven years spent there were the catalyst of a change-of-mind that radically altered the […]
I am scared to drive alone
Ariel Foreman, Raleigh, NC. I just moved to North Carolina from Virginia. I’m scared to travel on highway 14 between Home and Raleigh especially at night…because it’s heavily monitored by police. I should not be scared of a group that’s suppose to protect me.
Empathy, we are all from Africa
Tiara McCall, Greensboro, NC.
Being brown doesn’t always equal Mexican
Cristal Alanis, Greensboro, NC. Based on the color of our skin does not determine our background. Central and South America have other countries too, not just Mexico.
Privileged whites must start the conversation
Marcia Ladd, Chapel Hill, NC. A group from my Presbyterian Church has been studying and talking about the black experience, white privilege and what we can do to make changes. We have learned the hard way we cannot go into a group of black folks, church or otherwise and tell them what to do. We […]
Sequence: Negro. Colored. Afro-American. Black. African-American
Alonzo Felder, Durham, NC. Called by many names over the years.
Yes, you are all my family!
Hillora Lang, Burgaw, NC. As a person with Asperger Syndrome I have always felt estranged from the human race. In high school I began working on my family tree, and it really helped to ground me and allow me to feel a connection to past generations. When doing genealogy research last year I discovered a […]
Stop pairing my ancestry with race.
Journey Brown-Saintel, Charlotte, NC. So, just because I’m black it’s okay to assume I’m African-American? Or is just easier? My family comes from Haiti; I’m Caribbean for freak’s sake. But there’s no box for me to check besides the Black/African-American one. Why are you grouping me? Historically, I have more of a connection to France […]
I owe you nothing, I’m not responsible
Tony Concorde, NC I am tired seeing white people feeling guilty or responsible for the misfortune of minorities.
Why is this still so hard?
Kaye Saunders, Chapel Hill, NC.
School integration enriched my white life.
Cynthia Waszak Geary, Baltimore, MD. I grew up in Durham, NC and attended Hillside High School as part of the first court ordered desegregation plan to achieve racial balance. I am heart broken that since that time there has been a steady and deliberate re-segregation of schools in the US. I am hoping for leadership […]
Beautiful kids, did you adopt them
Amy Hueitt, Gastonia, NC. I am a single mother of two children, one who is 8 with Autism, ADHD, and developmental delays. My daughter is almost 6 and typical. My son is black, white, and Mexican. He appears to be just Mexican. My daughter is black and white, she looks white. I am black and […]
For tradition’s sake, we mock others.
Kyle McDonald NC A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I got in an argument about race and sensitivity that started from watching football, of all things. I mentioned something about the fact that, if you think about it, the team the Washington Redskins is pretty offensive. His thought was “who cares?”. “People these […]
White Males discriminated against at work.
Mary Fruin, Charlotte, NC. I think that Rev . Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Dream is nowhere near being fulfilled when our big corporations are illegally paying big bonuses to managers to hire & promote minorities and women (read: not white men) and giving soft metric well paying jobs to minorities while chasing White males […]
Glad of being an Army brat.
Rhonda Nottingham Durham, NC My father was in the US Army when I was born. We lived in many places among many types of people. We moved to nowhere WV when my father left the Army in order to care for my ailing grandfather. I went to an all white high school, as there were […]
It’s okay to be black, Promise
Maureen Shaw, Durham, NC. Thank you for doing this. This is a photo of my mother’s family, this is the reason why I wrote it’s okay to be black. I look at it an feel so proud of this photo. We let ourselves believe we are a people are people with shattered history. I’ve discovered […]
Whitey guilt do-gooders destroyed black family
Anon Ymous Charlotte, NC “Replaced slavery chains with entitlement chains” As a white with guilt, all I can say is: I’m so sorry, twice…
Adopted but am I still Mexican
Kasey Nichols, Clemmons, NC. I’ve known I’ve been adopted since I can remember and never questioned my ethnicity until I reached middle school age because we had to fill out cards with “check yes if Latino, African American, white or other.” Biologically I’m Mexican and Italian, but I was raised white with my dad being […]
I am not your model minority.
Jennifer Ho, Carrboro, NC. I’m an Asian American woman and often times in my daily life I’m the only Asian American person in the room, sometimes the only person of color. And it’s exhausting to deal with the stereotypes people have, especially because they think Asian Americans are a successful “Model Minority.” And so I […]
We’re one family divided by fear.
Andrew Kerbs, Asheville, NC.
Continually frustrated by America’s racial hangups
Whitney, Durham, NC. More 6-word offerings… – Life was less racial in Europe – Look black, more than half white – Ticked one box, denied one parent – Forced to deny half my heritage – Why should I pick just one? It’s not that race isn’t an issue in Europe, more that after nearly 8 […]
Skin not prison, come touch heart?
Linden Gibson Raleigh, NC I will never get used to being looked at by total strangers as a threat to their safety just by walking down the street. I see the fear in the averted looks, how they step aside or suddenly have something important to say to a companion, or seem to need to […]
Our tears aren’t for your consumption
Adrienne Davis, Durham, NC. I feel like white folks want to consume our pain and oppression but don’t want to commit to be accomplices in the work. Our pain is suppose to “help them grow”. No. That’s not how this works.
We are all one human race
Susheela Chandrasekaran, Cary, NC.
55 mph means you black man.
Gregory McGriff, Rutherfordton, NC. I am an Ivy-league graduate and a board-certified medical doctor. The subject of race comes up all the time but the conversation that should follow is usually very short. When I see the speed sign on the road announcing 55 mph (or whatever the legal limit is). I know that posting […]
No, I don’t tan or perm.
Daniela Charlotte, NC Some people look puzzled when I say I am half Japanese. They tend to ask me if I perm my hair or go tanning because typically Japanese females have pin straight hair and fair skin. However they don/t seem to pay attention when I say HALF Japanese (I am also half Peruvian).
My race is a safety issue
Lauren Belton, Charlotte, NC.
Life is better without skin tone
Ger Xiong, Charlotte, NC.
Growing up “black” in “white” America
Aaliyah Ballard, Charlotte, NC.
We are not all from Mexico
Katia Pérez Amaya, Charlotte, NC. Everyone that is not open minded see ALL Hispanic/Latinos that they are from Mexico and well of course that is not true because I am a Latina but from El Salvador.
What do you think my ancestry is?
Daniel, Charlotte, NC. I do not want to say what country I am from, because I want you all to guesstimate my ancestry? Where would you say I am from? What part of the world do my features reflect? Please explain your responses! Please share your thoughts with me. I am NOT from the U.S.A. […]
No Heroes for Poor, White Males
Francis Lafayette, NC. Much like modern Germans, lower class white males in America have been granted a shame about their past. We’ve been told the History we learn in school is Eurocentric, but as a former social studies teacher, I can tell you that most Americans cannot tell you who Louis IV was. Or John […]
Light skin is the right skin.
Michael, Raleigh, NC.
My Ancestors Bones Not For Museum
Sonya Williams, Baltimore, MD. I grew up in a unique area of North Carolina in what is referred to as a ti-racial community. My Indian family are the Cheroenhaka Nottoway and Meherrin Indians of Southeast, VA & North Eastern, NC. When I went to college, during a lecture in my anthropology class, the professor was […]
Bless Black Skin and Blue Uniforms
Tanya Adams, Durham, NC. Will my sons come to know a time when we are in a United State as Americans??? My heart grieves!
You know why they chose you?
Alan Smith, Angier, NC. This was said to me by an instructor, as an 18-year old US Navy sailor, having just completed submarine training in Groton, CT in 1978. I graduated 14th of 98 in my class, and was presented with an award for excellence by the Eastern Connecticut Council Navy League of the US. […]
The Art and Racket of Passing
Raven Cincinnati, OH In parts of Eastern North Carolina the lines between black, bi-racial and Native American is blurry and sometimes nonexistent. I went to school with the great(x3) grandchildren of my family’s slaveholders. Our families share the same last name. Upon leaving I learned that my green eyes, light skin and curly hair were […]
Don’t ever call me a bigot.
Meredith S. Gwaltney, Elon, NC. Elon University
An arbitrary system of color judgement
Emily Buehler, Elon, NC. Elon University
Sometimes, I can’t feel guilty anymore.
Allison Hren, Elon, NC. Elon University Recognizing the problems that exist in our divided world are very important, but there’s a part of me that gets fed up with the idea that expressing pride in my ancestry, mostly European, is racist. And although it’s true that issues, like slavery, were not actually that long ago, […]
Being White Does Not Equal Racist
Caitie Rudd, Burlingotn, NC. Elon University
Recognize the differences, accept the person
Alisha Carter, Charlotte, NC. Elon University
Stop shooting, hands up, guns down
Shelby Benfield, Lincolnton, NC.
Jim Crow Paper Genocide Native AmerIndians
Paper Genocide, Pinnacle, NC. Pictured: Monacan Indian Children at Recess How Jim Crow Practiced Paper Genocide Against Native American Indians. Jim Crow laws were a set of oppressive laws that reclassified Native American Indians into the category of Colored. Jim Crow reached their greatest influence during the decades of 1910, 1920, and 1930. Among them […]
Social construct separates, creates “better than”
Linda Block, Leicester, NC.
Sad I learned. Sad and hopeful.
Anonymous NC
See me for who I am
Rob McCollough, Asheville, NC. Interfaith; Vietnamese & “Other”. Because I am told that I am ‘lucky I can pass for white’
Yes, I’m white. Inside and Out.
Hayley Burgette, Durham, NC. Some people say I don’t act like I’m white but I’m just an ordinary country girl. Sometimes I can be as southern as it gets and you can tell in my voice but other times I’m out of control.
One man. Indivisible. Black. Gay. American.
Alva Jones Jr. Greensboro, NC I’m a bit of a focal point of discrimination in this country. As a Black man I’m viewed as a threat. As a gay man I’m viewed as an abomination. These views have by no means been universal in my travels, but the reality of their existence is no less […]
Cute when thin, angry when fat
Nicole McFarlane, Fayetteville, NC. I’m a 43 year old black woman who has spent most of her adult life living and working in the South. I notice that when my weight fluctuates I’m perceived differently — as different stereotypes associated with my race, gender and sexuality. At times when I’m heavier, many assume me to […]
Oh she’s black? Must be ghetto.
Crystal Parks, NC.
Black girl attitude, but sounds white.
Khuwailah Beyah, Durham, NC. For as long as I can remember people have said to me, and sometimes to my mother, the I “talk white” or that I’m trying to be white because of the way I speak and some of the things that interest me. I have never quite gotten this. I don’t have […]
Recognize Racism In Every Single Sector
Tia Cunningham, Charlotte, NC. I love people & our world. I hate corrupt systems. Due to my love of humanity, I am compelled to speak up against injustices throughput the world.
All Beings Certainly Deserve Education Freedom
Janice D. Stone, Graham, NC. Equality and equity are two different dimensions. We are all of the Human Being race!
Would All My Ancestors Love Me?
Melissa U., Charlotte, NC. My Taino people would love me, from my plump lips to my curly hair. My African people would love me from the rhythm in my hips to the powerful thoughts in my mind. My Spanish people, they might deny me, but I can’t deny them. They are in my language, they […]
Would All My Ancestors Love Me?
Melissa U., Charlotte, NC. My Taino people would love me, from my plump lips to my curly hair. My African people would love me from the rhythm in my hips to the powerful thoughts in my mind. My Spanish people, they might deny me, but I can’t deny them. They are in my language, they […]
No race at the dinner table
Anonymous Raleigh, NC
I am NOT addicted to Starbucks!
Elise Trexler, NC. I acknowledge the fact that I am a white female, but that does not automatically mean that I go to Starbucks every day after school to get a pumpkin spice latte.
Will you still talk to me?
Susan Duncan, Bristol, NH. When I was in the fourth grade, my family moved from Concord, North Carolina, to Leaksville (now Eden), North Carolina. Our street, Patrick Street, was parallel to Henry Street and the dividing line between the “white” neighborhood and the black/African-American neighborhood. Our next door neighbor, Miss Mary, had a large yard […]
I’m afraid I’ll hurt your feelings
Eileen Morgan, Durham, NC. #afterferguson I’m part of the “dominant” race with privileges that I did not earn. I’ve been listening and learning about racism a long time, but many times I still “goof up” and say stupid things that hurt the feelings of people of color. I’m really tired of this separation and am […]
White women came here as property.
Cathy Briggs, Randleman, NC.
WHITE feminism. I live with contradiction.
Danielle Nelson Winston Salem, NC I’m proud to be a feminist, but I’m not proud of the unspoken privilege that comes with being a white feminist. Fighting privilege with privilege? It’s so contradictory, yet I cannot ignore both these parts of my identity. WHITENESS consumes me every day, every minute, but because it’s so ingrained […]
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