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I am privileged and protected by my race.

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I am privileged and protected by my race.

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When I was young, I was told we were moving north of Indianapolis for the better schools and neighborhoods. I was in my 20s when I realized they were "better" because they were more white and privileged. 

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When I was young, I was told we were moving north of Indianapolis for the better schools and neighborhoods. I was in my 20s when I realized they were "better" because they were more white and privileged. 

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I've experienced both racism and privilege to varying degrees depending on the time of year (shade of my skin), my hair style and clothes, and the assumptions of those around me.
I've been racially profiled by police and in stores, been told to change my accent because it made me sound ignorant, been told to go back to my own country, been called racial slurs by strangers, and had coworkers make assumptions about me.
I've also been told that I'm "one of the good ones", been considered a model minority by teachers, been told that I have pretty skin (despite adult acne, rosacea, and eczema😫) and hair based on more Eurocentric features, been told that I'll have beautiful kids (just for being interracial), and have received privilege for being assumed to be white/Italian or being racially ambiguous.

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Growing up in New Mexico with a huge hispanic population I saw how white people treated them differently.

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Growing up in New Mexico with a huge hispanic population I saw how white people treated them differently.

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I grew up a middle class, privileged white girl who knew very little about the challenges faced by those of a different race.   I take pride in knowing how far I've come in that understanding, yet know that I will never be able to relate to experiences of those of a different race. 

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I grew up a middle class, privileged white girl who knew very little about the challenges faced by those of a different race.   I take pride in knowing how far I've come in that understanding, yet know that I will never be able to relate to experiences of those of a different race. 

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I grew up in a small, predominantly white community and never even questioned that the cultural norm was whiteness. I didn't realize my privilege until early adulthood.

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My race has never influenced decisions or situations negatively. My privilege does not go unnoticed by me. Throughout the last few years, I have been empowered to use my privilege to be an active ally. I have also made an effort to educate myself on the systems in place that oppress people of color.

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When I was young, I grew up in a very small community outside Flint, Michigan. All the students in my school were white until high school when one family of color moved in.

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When I was young, I grew up in a small community outside Flint. Everyone was white until high school when a family of color moved in.

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I have the privilege of thinking I will be treated fairly by law enforcement.

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I have the privilege of thinking I will be treated fairly by law enforcement.

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I grew up in a very small community where white people were the only race. It wasn't until I was in college was I really exposed to other races and then it wasn't until I decided to be an educator that I ever asked to think about race or have conversations about race.

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I grew up in a small town that did not have families of color. In K-12, race was not talked about. I was not educated about race until I went to college. It was only then that through my education classes was I educated about white privilege, racism, and culture that wasn't my own.

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For the most part I've experienced privilege in the US, and it's really been only in the last 6 years or so that I've seen overt racism - being told to go back to the country I came from, etc. After 9/11 things were tense for a while but my family was not directly affected by the backlash, even though other Indians, especially Sikhs (who wear turbans) lost their lives. I realized that I stopped wearing my Indian clothes (subconscious nervousness/fear?) not realizing that my face gave away my ethnicity! My husband was stopped at airport security checks for an additional security check right after 9/11. The security person told him it was random, and he replied that he taught statistics and 4/4 times was not random. Even today, when my husband and son go through the security checks at airports in the US, if I'm not traveling with them I ask them to text me to let me know they've got through.
In recent years, after hearing about the police-shootings of unarmed black men, I felt compelled to learn more about the racism that people of color face, especially those who are black/African American. Over the past two years, I've been trying to learn more  about systemic racism through a book group with friends, viewing videos online, etc. I learned about the racism my son has experienced when I asked him about it (he hadn't mentioned it until then). I heard that as he was returning to his college campus, some guys in a pickup truck followed him, and called him "Osama".
I love Brené Brown's quote and hope to have my efforts help change the narrative in a small way. I am excited about the work we're doing at Guion Creek to own the story and head with bravery towards a different ending.

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To many peoples surprise, I always say I was privileged grow up. I would say my privilege declined and race influence increased as I got older and realized what my mother (Kenyan immigrant) went through moving to America and starting her life here, how racist my step-dads family and extended family really were when my parents got divorced, and learned the true history and systematic racism that runs in America. However, growing up in a upper middle to middle class, white small town, I learned when I got to college I was white washed (not in a bad way) because of how and where I grew up.

Growing up, I went to an all white school from 4th grade until graduation. I was one of two black students to graduate high school from my class. I remember my parents (white step-dad and black/Kenyan mother) moving my sister and I to that school for a "better education". While I had a pretty positive experience, there were a few instances that were not. The one that sticks out to me the most is the time when I was in high school, our principle contacted my mom because she didn't identify my sister (half black) and I's race for paper work. Our principle claimed it was for insurance purposes, but my mom knew it was because they got extra money for minorities. My principle got so embarrassed that my mom caught his lie that he sucked up to our family from then on, until he left the school a couple years later.

Furthermore, I never knew I was pretty self conscience (because of the white women standards I grew up with) until I went to college. I always dreamed of having long, straight hair like my friends and the girls at my school and never liked my short, textured hair, for example. Once I learned and got into braids in college, I realized how awesome my hair was and the endless possibilities I can do with it, unlike my friends.

In conclusion, I do not regret how and where I grew, but I do wish I would have been able to embrace both the white culture I grew up in, and the black culture my mother and I carry with us at the same time, instead of learning about everything at the same time in college and beyond.

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I was raised in a White, middle class, Catholic community.  I can remember being shocked in college to see Black and Hispanic peers in church.  In my sheltered viewpoint, Catholics were White.  Imagine my surprise when I learned I was in the minority of the global population!

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I grew up living on many different military bases and in different countries.  I never really even thought of people of different colors/races as to me everyone was the same.  As I grew up and went to private school for high school, I realized everyone there looked like me.
As the years have passed, I feel like I am aware of how people are treated differently by their skin color/race/gender.
I try to teach my class that we are all equal and treat everyone the same! It's hard to know how successful I am in that though because I am sure that there is some inherent bias in the things I say even if it is unintentional!

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I grew up in a small town of 500 people -all white population. I did not meet people on color until I went to college.

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I grew up in the suburbs after parents chose to move away from the Guion neighborhood for "better schools." Yes, I would have attended Guion. I always thought that I viewed all people equally while living in a bubble where the majority of people looked like me. It wasn't until I got involved with a community center in Indianapolis and moved to college that I began to sit with others and listen to stories, that I began to recognize the privelege I have because of my race. I now am eager to learn through books and conversations with friends how to be an an allly and care with a lasting relational impact.

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I went to a large school, but we were predominantly white. Of the over 800 students in my class, you could count the non-white students on just two hands. When I taught in Gary, my classes were predominantly black. I noticed that whenever I would tell people where I worked, I always got the same response about how awful it must be there. It was frustrating.