Sarah Naomi Burnett,
Norristown, PA.
Being a ‘white’ girl raised on the border of Mexico the ‘race-card’ issue was raised daily. I always felt that if I was a color, and they were a nationality, those two identifiers didn’t quantify either of us equally. I had a culture at home that was Irish/Italian but where was my little box in the list of race boxes, if everyone else was defining race by land of birth? And the funny thing is, the Mexican culture is one that I feel almost equally at home in. So now am I Irish/Italian/Mexican/American? But then again is that my race, or my culture? Some people use the word Race almost interchangeably with nationality, but no dictionary I have ever read defines those words as synonyms, but try explaining that to someone who was taught differently. I believe we are all equal as humans, but beautifully different in identifiers, but it should be a point of interest, not disgust.
