“I’d never get away with that!”
Susie Wilson, Lake Forest, CA This was said to me by my friend who’s Mexican after I told a funny story about getting away with...
I (don’t) fit. Don’t look closely.
Emery Boyle-Scott, Milwaukee, WI. I want to belong in a group, and it’s nice to belong until someone looks closely. My whiteness is always sidelined...
I Shouldn’t Get Benefits For Whiteness
Emily Bertot, Clarksville, MD. I grew up in Florida in an extremely non-diverse, middle-class area. Moving up North was a big culture shock, but it...
The fiction of whiteness imperils humanity.
Evan Sorem, San Diego, CA. I am a human being. I have lived nearly all my life in California. My ancestors have lived in California,...
White = Christian, I’m not, I’m Jewish
Janice Cagan-Teuber, Arlington, MA To me, “White” has always meant “Christian”. I grew up in a neighborhood that was 99.9% Catholic. We were the only...
Yes, I transitioned. Still white, though.
Jonah F. Brooklyn, NY As a transgender man, I can relate to being marginalized. But still, my whiteness (and now maleness) affords me privilege in...
Teacher of black youth, ancestors slaverholders
Ernie Lee Savannah, GA Struggling with my whiteness and my student’s blackness until we connect. I am a good teacher and after a while I...
Reflections of Ethnicity, but Not Race?
Josie, Houston, TX Most of my life, I had not given much thought to my racial identity. I never really thought about myself as a...
The house I did not build
Adam Paberzs, Ann Arbor, MI. Understanding Race Project- University of Michigan Here are some other 6-word essays that you may use under my name (I...
I was colorblind. Now I see.
Suzi, Seattle, WA I am white and grew up surrounded by whiteness. I was oblivious to what it meant to be non-white; to the fact...
Wishing I knew my own language.
Celestina Garcia, Bloomington, IN. Cripplingly aware of my Hispanic heritage, yet I feel that it doesn’t belong to me. I have my mother’s Anglo nose,...
Deconstructing “whiteness” won’t change my skin.
Mariel Rieland, Seattle, WA. I’m about as stereotypically European-American as you can get… Born to an upper-middle-class family, raised in the suburbs, graduating from a...
