shine Archives - The Race Card Project

I’m Italian, West Asian, North African

September 19, 2024September 19, 2024 African, CA, Family, future, history, italian, Leah Granen, light, multicultural, Santa Clarita, shine, West Asian

Leah Granen,
Santa Clarita, CA

I grew up thinking I was second generation 100% Italian/Sicilian. I realized that my grandfather and great uncles had Americanized their names because they wanted to assimilate. As a fair skinned, freckled red head I was considered to be most likely Irish.

I married a second generation Irish/Ukranian. We adopted a son from South Korea who is 1/2 Korean and 1/2 Hispanic. Then to our surprise we had a biological daughter. That’s when I started hearing “why is your son so brown?” and “people love their biological children better than the adopted ones”. How wrong these people are! And how none of their business it was!

Unfortunately I think all of us who are considered “White” these days still have (hopefully just) remnants of conscious and sub-conscious thoughts that are racist and try to deal with them by learning as much as possible about racism. Your book is a wonderful tool.

And I was delightfully surprised when I took the DNA test from 23 and me and realized I am 80% Italian and 20% West Asian and North African! And, as most of us know now, my ancestors deepest roots are from central Africa!

My daughter is married to a man who has Hispanic and Jewish ancestry. I have a wonderful daughter-in-law who is Pakistani and now a 16 month old grandson who is Korean, Hispanic and West Asian.

My family is an amazing mix of cultures and nationalities. I feel that race is a social construct that really makes no sense but deserves the pursuit of our knowledge in order to shine a light on the dangerous impact and effects of what race has meant to the history and progress of this country.

“Beauty Inside Shines through the Outside”

October 28, 2020October 28, 2020 1950's, 1960's, African American, beauty, black dad, CA, Catholic School, CBU HIS311, Inside, interracial families, irish, isolation, Matthew Powers, Mexican, outside, Riverside, shine, single mom, whit ekids, white mom

Matthew Powers,
Riverside, CA.

“Growing up Irish and being raised by a single mom in the 50’s and 60’s in Omaha I saw racial tension and acts all around the city, but I can’t say I understood anything about it until my younger sister and I were transferred to a different school because mom couldn’t afford the tuition at the Catholic school we were attending. The elementary school we were moved to was an all African-American school and we were the only “white” kids there, we took a lot of abuse and faced the fact that our skin color wouldn’t allow us to fit in or be accepted. We were the target of a lot of being beat on, racial slurs, isolation, and being chased home daily but eventually we did make a few close friends and things settled down. I can’t say we ever fit in but we survived and built a few relationships. It was one of the best things that could have happened to me from an understanding point of view as I saw and felt from the other side what being defined by a color or race felt like, it didn’t matter who I was inside. My family reflects that lesson we learned, my seven children’s mother had a white mother and African-American father, my children are mixed and they are proud of it, and have spouses and boyfriends and girlfriends from other races and it’s a beautiful community. My sister married a Mexican man and had three boys. Through the experience I learned that true beauty, goodness, and humanity comes from the inside, and shines through the outside regardless of what color or race that outside is and we taught the kids to see all people in the same way, individually from the inside out.” CBU HIS 311