I am what I am: me.
Thanh Bercher,
Huntington Beach, CA
Vietnamese-French, Polish-Eastern European / South African
Interfaith Buddhist-Jew
Multilingual enigma.
Meet My WHITE AFRICAN AMERICAN Son
Janice Davidsson,
Norfolk, VA.
You can’t help who you fall in love with and this American girl fell in love with an African boy. So that makes our son African American. Here’s the catch that a lot of people have an issue with… He’s white. He has blonde hair and blue green eyes and is the reason I have taken out stock in sun screen. For all who claim Africa what country is it that you are claiming? My Husband and son are proud to be South African and they shouldn’t have to deny their roots that are still deep in both South Africa and the States because it upsets the few who claim a continent full of countries.
From South Africa but not black?
Stefan Svicevic,
Lawton, OK.
I recently came to study in the United States and I am from South Africa. Since being here a lot of people have picked up on my accent and asked where am I from and I’d say South Africa and 9 times out of ten the next question would be how come you’re not black or that I am talking rubbish. This makes me question peoples understanding of the world that we live in and how they automatically assume that there are only black people living in South Africa and this is a bit irritating because we live in a world where we are not cut out of from the internet or news.
Being white in South Africa has no privilege as one would think, the whites are actually the minority and mostly blamed on because of the past. It is a rough place to be because people want to make it seem that the white people are responsible for everything bad that’s happened to the country and I personally love the place but it has forced me to move out and seek a better future for myself.
I’m always asked “What are you?”
Madysen Phororo,
Corona, CA.
South African dad, and white mom: I’m pretty ambiguous in terms of my race. There were questions I got in high school along the lines of “Do you think you’re more white or black?”. My mom was told that I’d have to choose what race I was when I went to college. And, yeah that’s true, but at the same time, I’ve never been the type to find my identity (even racially) through the means of others’ view. I’m black and white, it’s not an all-or-nothing type of deal.
Ask me about the cricket test
Michael Simpson
UK
If you want to hear that most quintessential of English race conundrums, then look no further than Norman Tebbit’s ‘cricket test’, A member of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Government, Tebbit was known for his disarmingly blunt manner and a tendency to bash disloyal heads together on behalf of his boss. There was a sense that immigrants in the UK – the Caribbeans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis but not, curiously, the South Africans and Australians – weren’t patriotic enough in their fervour for the England cricket team, preferring instead to support the national team of their birth country or that of their parents or grandparents. So Tebbit came up with a test – only those who supported England could be considered appropriately integrated, the rest were just chancers and scoundrels here to take – deep in the throes of it’s post war imperial decline – advantage of modern, rainy Britain and all its dreary delights.
Of course, my Jamaican family took great delight in a West Indian team that utterly terrorized England for the first nine or ten years of my life, before falling into steep decline just as my grand parents’ generation entered their latter years. I’m more fluid, cherishing those sweat and whiskey scented years in Grandma’s roaring, heaving front room – Jesus looking down from the mantle piece as Saint Viv smashed the ball around on the TV, but feeling in my 20s the pull of England as they ascended those heights the West Indies had so drastically fallen from. Mixed race Michael. English and Jamaican. I’ve proudly supported both. Do I get a pass?
Black out side. Mixed in Side.
Eddy Bowen
Madison, WI
I chose these words because It’s my cultural anthropology. most people when they “see” me they just see a normal black guy but little do they know I’m Puerto Rican and Native American. I don’t think its right to judge me based off of how I look on the outside that’s just like judging a book by its cover. I mean you should take the time to get to know me. unless your just walking by but still its not right. I mean is it right to just walk past a white skin colored person and say oh he’s European, no. he could be South African for all i know. basically. don’t judge a book by its cover. read that book. in other words, don’t judge me off my skin color. get to know me.
Oh wow, you don’t LOOK Jewish.
Anonymous,
Austin, TX
I’ve always found it troubling to see the look on people’s faces when they find out I’m Jewish, as if I had been hiding some terrible secret from them. For my own amusement, I then let them know I am a white South African.
