I get sunburned in ten minutes.
Christine Leach, San Francisco, CA. If the sun is intense enough, I can and have gotten sunburned in ten minutes, literally. I joke with my...
Ready to listen to your story
Karen Orellana, Suwanee, GA. Last year I joined a group that focused on finding civil ways to improve the polarization in this country. We work...
I’m white my daughter is black
Jennifer Berkemeier, Farmington Hills, MI. I’m a single mom. I adopted my daughter from Haiti in 2012 when she was 4 years old. I’m white,...
MY VOICE DOESN’T MATCH MY APPEARANCE
Ciandra, Denver, CO . Black people are not monolithic. We are a diverse group of individuals with different experiences. I grew up in Colorado and...
Hated sunburns, wished I was black.
Donna Cook, Roseville, MN. I have very fair skin, Fitzpatrick Scale I, and growing up in Los Angeles meant lots of unintended, fairly serious, and...
Well, why NOT talk about race?
Lucy Pipkin, Minneapolis, MN. My own white discomfort is much less painful than continuous microaggressions and real racism faced by my fellow undergrad students who...
God, when will racism be weak ?
Thierno Diallo, Madison, WI. It is really painful to be a minority in the US. It is a heavy ‘extra’ burden that you carry even...
For Me, Racism Started at Home
Sarah S., Washington, DC. My Puerto Rican grandmother used to call me “muchacha fea,” while calling my dark-haired, dark-eyed, darker-skinned, curly-haired sisters, “muchacha linda.” That...
Life in the borderlands is painful.
Kaller, Portland, OR. Native American grandfather, Quaker grandmother, their child was my mother. Black stepfather, biracial brother, adopted Latina child, all Chinese grade school, segregation,...
Being singled out is painful
Lina, Denver, CO. Being here makes me aware of how different I am, that I am female, I am Asian. People would never consider me...
White mother of adopted Bolivian son
Nancy Rawn Storrs, CT I have been so proud of my beautiful boy for all of his 20 years. He struggled with so many high...
Growing up biracial was very painful.
Jim Roberts Atoka, TN I’m half Caucasian and half Asian. Growing up in the rural South during the eighties was a painful and humiliating experience....
Unforgettable eye opening sometimes painful experience.
Danielle Carr St Louis, MO University of Michigan Law
Only one race – the Human Race.
Barbara Dean Great Barrington, MA This is such a painful subject for so many people, but I believe to my core that there really is...
Painful regret about an assumption made.
Anonymous Ann Arbor, MI The year was 1997. I was part of a small committee selecting MBAs for highly sought-after internships in China. I wasn’t...
Universal skin condition, sometimes painful
Margie Nelson Morris, MN All beige future – please ponder that If livers differed, but not skin Race to the finish line?? Extra credit for...
