{"id":43599,"date":"2015-10-29T21:55:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T21:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=43599"},"modified":"2015-11-01T17:21:19","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T17:21:19","slug":"i-wont-apologize-for-my-blackness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=43599","title":{"rendered":"I won\u2019t apologize for my blackness."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/lohslakeviews.com\/?p=4790\" target=\"_blank\">I won\u2019t apologize for my blackness.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lohslakeviews.com\" target=\"_blank\">Lake Views: The Award Winning Student Newspaper of Lake Oswego High School<\/a><br \/>\nLake Oswego, Oregon<br \/>\n2015-10-07<\/p>\n<p><strong>Camryn Leland<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not my job to make you feel comfortable.<\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sf\/national\/2014\/11\/09\/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever\/\" target=\"_blank\">article written about the use of the n-word in the NFL<\/a> it was stated, \u201cThe Story of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/nigger\" target=\"_blank\">n-word<\/a>, in many ways, parallels the overall story of race in America \u2013 from the bloody circumstances of its birth to the messy state of its present. The word is visible almost anywhere there is racial conflict: the lawless realm of social media, the vast landscape of pop culture,\u201d\u2026 or the halls of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lake_Oswego_High_School\" target=\"_blank\">Lake Oswego High School<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m Camryn Montana Leland but only my mother calls me Camryn Montana (usually when I\u2019m in deep trouble). I moved to our lovely bubble of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lake_Oswego,_Oregon\" target=\"_blank\">Lake O<\/a> when I was 8 years old and I come from a multi-racial family. As a little kid I did not think being half black would have much of an impact on me, but oh boy, was I wrong&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;For years I have grown up surrounded by people who do not look like me, and it is felt like living in a zoo. From the constant stares to the idiotic questions and ignorant statements. No, the other black person in the class is not related to me. Yes, I do in fact know my dad. No, it is not \u201cunbelievable\u201d that my mom is a white woman. No, there is no reason in pointing out the fact that he\u2019s black, I imagine he is very aware. I can almost guarantee you asking her if you can use the N word just to \u201ctell the joke right\u201d is in no way going to be o.k. with her&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/lohslakeviews.com\/?p=4790\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I won\u2019t apologize for my blackness. Lake Views: The Award Winning Student Newspaper of Lake Oswego High School Lake Oswego, Oregon 2015-10-07 Camryn Leland It\u2019s not my job to make you feel comfortable. In an article written about the use of the n-word in the NFL it was stated, \u201cThe Story of the n-word, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,8,20],"tags":[21695,21698,21699,21697,21696,5509],"class_list":["post-43599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-camryn-leland","tag-lake-oswego","tag-lake-oswego-high-school","tag-lake-views","tag-lake-views-the-award-winning-student-newspaper-of-lake-oswego-high-school","tag-oregon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43665,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43599\/revisions\/43665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}