Stop talking like a white girl
Jasmine Baker East Lansing, MI Growing up I was placed in the gifted and talented program in my elementary school. I learned to speak what...
I am not defined by society
Justina Adarkwah Christchurch, VA I’ve always had a problem with identity, but ironically I realized it was me that thought I had a problem, it...
I’m surprised you speak so well.
E.C. Boyd, Canton, OH. I was not born, but I was raised in a predominantly white neighborhood because the school system was better in Perry...
Wow, you don’t have an accent!
Angelina A., Allentown, PA. I myself always get asked about questions about my racial and ethnic background and it never has bothered me. I usually...
Wow, you speak English really well!
Sharmila Guha, Oakland, CA. It was my first summer job after high school. A man in the lunch room one day tried to ask shy...
No, I’m not faking my accent!
Rachel James, Syracuse, NY. Growing up in a Latina household I learned the English that my mother spoke as a Panamanian immigrant. Therefore, I learned...
Colombian? Where is your accent?
Yessica Guarin Arias, Boston, MA. Yes, I don’t have the same accent as the actors and actresses on TV. The reason to why is because...
Why do you talk so proper?
Cameron McCall, Fontana, CA. The reason I choose these six words is because I don’t like how I am stereotyped to be un-educated and ghetto....
Over the phone, I’m just American.
Reginald Daniel New York, NY It’s amazing what one hears when the other presumes they are speaking with someone of the same race.
You don’t talk with an accent.
Grace Marie Sanchez, Scotts Valley, CA. When I took a room mate to my house after graduating from college this is what she said to...
You don’t look or sound Cuban.
Sergio R Velazquez, Lowell, MA. The label Latino bothers me, same as Hispanic. Both have colonial roots and do not properly represent any specific group...
I speak proper so I’m whitewashed
Jewell Barnes, Chesapeake, VA. I can’t even keep track of the amount of times I was called whitewashed….. I’m sorry, I went to school and...
Didn’t know/you don’t sound black.
Charity Son Anchorage, AK I was disappointed that this seems to even surprise a congenitally blind white woman I work with–“I didn’t know you were...
“Well you’re not like super Hispanic”
Christina Aviles, Bethesda, MD. “You don’t talk like most Hispanic girls do, you don’t wear your hair like them, you don’t listen to the same...
I thought you’d have an accent!
Sonia Paz, Boston, MA. Would it make you more comfortable if I did? I was born in Boston. Raised in Boston. Educated in Boston. Did...
Highly educated black woman. …so what
Levaughn, Grand Blanc, MI. I’m a master social worker and received my accelerated advanced degree from a top ten university…MSU… I am an outpatient therapist...
