Samantha McFadden
New York, NY
I grew up outside of New York in a city that was definitely more urban than suburban. I spent the majority of my childhood being referred to as “that white girl” by my classmates. As one of a dozen Caucasian people in my graduating class in high school, you would think that I would have stood out more. And I did, if only for the fact that I was so pale compared to my peers that I was told to go to a tanning salon on a daily basis. Over the years I grew accustomed to being classified by (and mocked for) my lightness, and eventually even embraced it. There were 8 other people with the same name as me, but I was the only one who could boast the White Girl title.
Then I attended a small liberal arts college in New England that had about a 15% minority population. It took me several months to realize that the reason why no one made fun of my skin anymore was because most of them were just as white as I was. Being tanner than half of the people around me for the first time in my life? Now that was culture shock.
