David Mercando,
Norcross, GA

This October my wife and I celebrate our 31st anniversary. We are a mixed race couple. I am white and my wife is Filipino. We noticed right away that we were not treated as equal to other young couples in Princeton, NJ in the 1990’s. It slowly changed but is still very present.

Our children attended private school in Princeton and Pennington, NJ between 2009 – 2016. My daughter has darker skin than I do but has more traditional white features while my son is as white as I am but has more Asian features. So when my wife would pick up my daughter from school, my daughter’s classmates would ask her, “who is the Chinese woman that picks you up from school?” It was the reverse for me. Although it was with my son. His classmates would ask him who is the white man that picks you up from school.

We actually think it as being quite funny. These students are from affluent backgrounds in Princeton, NJ and do not realize that the simple observation could be making quite a racist statement.

Some day 100’s of years from now we’ll be the human race.