Hapa: but always the wrong half.
Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt, Chattanooga, TN. I’m half Japanese and half white. In Hawaii, where I grew up, mixed race people like me are called “hapa”...
Unaware, yet aware something was amiss
Billie Anderson, Hampton, TN My birth family lived in Orlando, Florida where my father ministered to the First Christian Church. He wanted to help start...
You are dating a black girl?
Michael K. Wallace, Johnson City, TN. This was the opening question to the most consistent family conversation I had during my freshmen year of highschool....
The Uncertainty My Blackness Brings Me
Ashlei, Knoxville, TN Being a black woman sometimes feels like I will always have unjust obstacles in my life. I will learn to deal with...
I am woman first, biracial second
Cynthia Heard, Cordova, TN I am unapologetically Black. I have little tolerance for fragile people who don’t consider their need for comfort as a problem...
Learned my truth. Did my DNA.
Candance W Reaves, Seymour, TN I may look like I’m only a Scots Irish woman. I’m not. There’s a story in my ancestry that says...
DON’T ASK ME TO JUST FORGET
Thaddeus, Nashville, TN. I was raised poor in Louisiana where the generations of my family before me farmed and picked cotton, fished and lived off...
My asian kids aren’t like me.
Sheree King Johnson City, TN My kids, adopted from China, now ages 14 & 16 not only don’t look like me, but deal with issues...
Rural Alaska, six blacks, my family.
Lydia Taylor Memphis, TN I was born and raised in Alaska. When I was 4, my father got out of the Air Force and accepted...
No, I am not an oreo.
Sarah Staples, Nashville, TN. I grew up in a predominantly white community in a city that was predominantly black and hispanic or latino. My best...
No one wants to hear your heritage
Macy Willett, Knoxville, TN Yes, I do have a heritage. Yes, I am also white. While I celebrate the unique backgrounds of my friends and...
MY NAILS ARE LONG, SO WHAT?
Tia DuBose, Memphis, TN American society often views nails, hair, or any other form of a black woman’s enhancements to her beauty as “ghetto,” unprofessional,...
Unapologetic defender of equal rights
Donna Fisher, Piney Flats, TN Our Black and brown brothers and sisters have just as much right to the American Dream as the next person.
Black Men Have Feelings As Well
Jaleel Swauncy, Memphis, TN Black men are treated as though they are sub-human or animals with little to no feelings, both emotionally and physically. We...
Redefining the south’s reputation for racism.
Lanthe Keller, Knoxville, TN I grew up in a small suburb outside of Seattle, WA. I played with and had friends in my class who...
