Race isn’t just black or whitePosted in Articles, Autobiography, Media Archive, United States on 2016-04-15 01:31Z by Steven |
Race isn’t just black or white
The Beacon: The Student Voice of the University of Portland Since 1935
Portland, Oregon
2016-04-13
Rebekah Markillie, Design Editor
I couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old, on the way to the park with my dad, when a neighborhood kid asked me if I was adopted. That was the first time someone had brought to my attention the disparity between my complexion and the one of my so-called biological father’s. Another time more recently, when my mother tried introducing me as her daughter to another woman, she paused for a moment, looked at me and laughed, “You’re not her daughter!”
We hear it all the time that race can’t be divided into nice boxes to check. But this is rarely the reality. In many well-meaning discussions about racial inclusion and racial diversity, mixed race identities are completely left out. I’ve been told countless times that I can’t talk about racial discrimination, or Asian racial issues, because I’m not brown or Asian…
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