I feel uncomfortable with you here.
Terrie,
East Palo Alto, CA.
Soon after moving to an exciting silicon valley in the first years of the internet boom, it felt like anything was possible in this new world. I was invited by a friend to a party given by a start-up founder, held at his home. We arrived separately from my friend and settled in with my 6 month old. After sitting and chatting for a while, I fixed a plate and sat down to eat. It was then that the hostess came to my side and told me, “I don’t feel comfortable with you in my house.” I was the only African American present, other than my infant. I looked around me as everyone else, people I had been chatting with a moment before, averted their gazes. My embarrassment mounted as I gathered my things, my baby, and my husband and left. My friend apologized, but I just couldn’t face her again after this experience, and that was the end of our budding friendship. I didn’t feel the same about the ‘wild, free’ tech industry after that. I wish that even one person had stood up for me.
Love me because I am you.
David Clark,
Sacramento, CA.
This reflects my hope that the conversation is elevated beyond race to realize the truth that we are all one.
Black. Cuban. Both. Are you sure?
Guinevere Thomas
New Haven, CT
So many times I often get the “what are you mixed with?” question. Like any Black person from the Americas, I am well aware I have European, and Indigenous roots, but my roots are the most deeply rooted from Africa. Growing up in a Cuban home, I shared my culture with other Latinos, but my race with other Blacks. I’ve always lumped Hispanic with Black because I’ve never felt half or either, because in my home Black and Hispanic were associated as one.
But you don’t look Puerto Rican…
Paul David Mena
Wayland, MA
As if a Puerto Rican can’t be fair-skinned, middle-class and college-educated! Granted, I was raised by parents who looked for a life as far away from their Depression-era upbringing in Brooklyn as possible. They found it further east in suburban Long Island, where I grew up with zero consciousness of race. Was this a good thing?
Racism does not exist without you.
Stacey Van Buskirk
Ann Arbor, MI
If you choose to treat everyone equal, racism would not exist in your world. The only person you can control is yourself. You can control how you react and how you act in terms of racism. Treat everyone equal and ignore people who treat you less than that. One day, no one will be racist what-so-ever, but if you don’t take the step to change how you perceive the world, than how will we get to the perfect world. Baby steps.
I don’t hate who you hate
Ann H.
Baltimore, MD
I am always amazed and mostly saddened that people will use slurs or other hateful speech and assume I agree with them. “What can you expect…”?, “those #$% are buying up all the stores and gas stations”. I am so glad to have reached the age where I no longer let it go, words hurt, I have to be a voice for change. Ann
