Wishing it was disbelief I’m feeling
Jeff Hutchinson,
Submitted via Twitter: @humblywalkin
I wish he was a girl.
Kristen Moorhead,
Silver Spring, MD.
I’ve always told my son, “You can be anything you want to be.” Before Shani Davis’ won gold, POTUS was elected – prior to Neil deGrasse Tyson gracing our screen in Cosmos. What was once – is still – momentous to me is his normal: ‘I like ice skating, why not? The President’s black – and? Of course African Americans do astrophysics!’
Initially it was comical: trying to impart the earth-shattering significance of things he finds hopelessly mundane. Laying the groundwork for ‘the dream’ was hard, I guess living it is easy.
He’s twelve now – almost my height and swears he ‘doesn’t see color.’ His possibilities are infinite, yes, but there’s a cruel catch: “You can be anything you want to be, but first, you must survive. And your survival is dependent on knowing this: you are young, black, male – perceived guilty until proven innocent, aggressive, ‘a demon,’ America’s prime suspect. We all bear the burden of knowing the procedures and pathology that come with that.”
I wish we were all creamy-brown.
Tony Cunningham,
St. Cloud, MN.
I was going to say “blue,” but that would be a big adjustment. If we were all one race, we’d divide ourselves in other ways, but still, I’d like to make it a little harder to do so.
We are all brothers and sisters
Christina Williams,
Aliso Viejo, CA.
Race is such as small idea in comparison to bigger ideas like love, togetherness, family, connection and happiness. I wish to raise my children in a world where people are celebrated for ideas and compassion and not for superficial ideas such as skin color and ethnicity. Race is outside of our control, but how we treat one another is up to us!
HIST311 CBU
Hated sunburns, wished I was black.
Donna Cook,
Roseville, MN.
I have very fair skin, Fitzpatrick Scale I, and growing up in Los Angeles meant lots of unintended, fairly serious, and wretchedly painful sunburns. I was also a bit of a tomboy wild child who would refuse to let my mother brush my hair, hair she intentionally left long as a final girly rebuke. One day, my father happened to be watching “Conan the Barbarian” when I got home from school. During that mesmerizing 90mins, Grace Jones became my childhood hero. Not only could she kick ass, she was beautifully dark brown AND had short hair! I asked why *she* was allowed to have short hair, and my father vaguely replied that very short hair was normal and acceptable for black women (and *not* for little white girls!). For the next several years I wished (and even prayed) to be like Grace Jones, willowy yet strong, tall and handsome, and wonderfully brown with fabulous, tangle-and-mean-hairbrush free short hair!
Afraid of blacks, wish I wasn’t
Royce Wood
Submitted via: NPR’a Talk of the Nation
I wish I wasn’t so afraid
Travos
MS
For the most part I if I see someone of a different race I don’t know I get really scared and nervous…as in, more afraid than I already would be! I guess I’d like to be friends with a lot of different people, all it takes is hello, right? But I hate that I’m too scared to even look most people in the eye.
Wish I was not a racist
Brian Smith,
Sugar Land, TX.
Part of me wish I wasn’t racist. I did my best not to be like my parents when I was growing up, but as I grew up I kept noticing common themes. I’m 28 now, grew up in middle class conservative Houston, Texas. I watched my dad created a business out of nothing, he taught me hard work and being fair to others. Most my family came from Tennessee, being raised southern doesn’t mean racism was apart of it, mostly just how to be a good southern man. That being said, when you grow up learning how to treat others kind and with care and its not returned or in void…you start noticing things.
In my world a man opens a door for a woman, he doesn’t cuss in front of women and he isn’t rude in public unless he needs to be. You put that light on the average black person and you will almost always see a contrast.
In sales I find its a black person that has constant attitude, they are rude and cuss like its nothing. I hardly ever see a black man opening a door for his loved one, instead its her job to simply follow him and do what he says. The black person feels that America still owes him for whatever reason being “my daddy or mommy left me, the white man screwed me, I grew up on food stamps, poor side of town, my ancestors were slaves” a lot of irresponsible statements that have nothing to do with taking charge of their own lives or destinies.
Bottom line, yes i’m racist. My favorite part is, black people who are decent don’t even like their own people. They don’t want to be on the side of town where black ghetto people live. While I don’t care for the redneck side of town, at least the average latino or white guy is kind enough to let you borrow a phone to make an emergency call without asking for anything in return….have yet to come across a safe circumstance similarly in the ghetto.
It’s not my fault I’m Asian
Karen
Jericho, NY
Racial discrimination towards asians is unfair. We deserve the same treatment in the media, politics, and college application process. It makes me wish I was black.
Wish black males had role models
Paula Gaehring,
Haddon Heights, NJ.
Have taught in Philadelphia and now have students from Camden, NJ. So few of them have good male role models in their lives. Most are raised by moms and grandmoms doing their best but it is not the same as having dads, granddads and uncles in their lives. I wish I could give that to my students so they’d feel better about themselves.
I wish I had blue eyes
Ericka Danko,
Santa Monica,CA.
This is my son, Ziggy. He is adopted from birth and he is biracial. He has told me that he wishes his eyes were the same color as mine.
I never wished that I was white.
Ronald Killebrew,
Memphis, TN.
If God made be black, he must had a good enough reason to do so, and that is good enough for me. Real talk.
I wish I had darker skin
Melanie Douglas,
Peyton, CO.
I have transracial adopted kids. They have better hair than I do, they have better skin than I do, it is really something that they got everything I could ever want for them outside of my gene pool, and all I ever want is to be in their gene pool. I give thanks daily that they are in my life, and my families life. They have forever changed my racist backwoods family that I grew up in. Truly a blessing, we will never, ever live in that type of world -that I grew up in!
As you wish to be treated.
Patrick Kenyon,
Hamilton, OH.
There is a black family living next to me. They would play the stereo loud at night and wake my kids up. They would bang on the walls, leave knives in the front yard, trash etc. After a short while I knocked on their door and asked them to stop banging on the walls and to stop the loud music. They continued in their ways. I called the police and had them come out and have them turn down the music. They hit my car with basket balls, say things behind my back like “racist cracka” or “racist bastard”. Part of this is fueled from me essentially ignoring them in public. This is not because of race creed or color. It is simply because if you are nice to me I will be nice to you. If you disrespect me I will try Ignoring you. If you still harass me I will deal with it as I see fit. I know they are trying to throw the race card. I just dont appreciate it.
I wish I was more white
Lynn P.,
Raleigh, NC.
My mother is white and my father is black. I am light skinned and proper speaking but not white enough in skin tone. I do not think I should have to choose a side, so why as me to? I wish I was more white skinned, then I would feel accepted. I am accepted by nobody. Too light for some not dark enough for others, not light enough and tot dark for me. I love white men but they do not seem to love me. I hate all racist crimes and actions. Yet I know it is racist to wish to be more white. My life would be different. now 46 I am still lost and not accepted. I have no identity other than as a mom.
