Do I look like a Twinkie?
Jacob Tanes,
Durham, NC.
A stereotype that people call the Asian race is Twinkie because Twinkies are yellow on the outside and white on the inside.
Yellow outside, white inside, adopted Twinkie.
Karen Skillin Rojas
San Francisco, CA
Adopted from Korea at 4 1/2 months old, I was raised in an entirely Caucasian family and community until I went to college. I often struggle with not identifying with my Asian exterior (yellow), which is how the world around me sees me. I find I identify so much more with my Caucasian interior (white), a testament to nuture versus nature I suppose. I, and many others in my situation, call themselves bananas or Twinkies. Can it be classified as a race?!?
I’m biracial: yellow outside, white in.
Katherine Fogelberg
Fort Worth, TX
We talk about race as though it is only something on the outside – but I have fought my whole life to find my “place” in the world. I was born in South Korea – found behind a movie theater at about 6 months of age – and lived my next 10 months in a Korean orphanage and a Korean foster home. I was adopted by a Caucasian couple in the US who chose to give me a fully American name. I grew up wanting red hair and green eyes so I could fit in better; avoiding mirrors so I could try to forget I was different. It wasn’t until I lived in Hawaii for several years as an adult that I realized I didn’t “fit in” anywhere – because where I looked like everyone else, I was still an outcast – a banana: yellow on the outside, white on the inside. Race isn’t black and white, and while I’m learning that being different can be a beautiful thing, having a foot in two different worlds in a different way has certainly been – and continues to be – a challenge.
