poc

Inevitably, it happens. A well-meaning (or maybe not so well-meaning) white person will utter the phrase, “Well, I just don’t see color.”

I still wake up every day knowing that no matter how much work I do, as a low-key racist, I will always have more to do. And I’m happy to do it.

Fielding off-putting questions and comments is a regular part of the mixed-race experience around the world. Yet this social phenomenon is especially common in places with a legacy of institutionalized and cultural racism. That includes the South.

Where did this particular ideology of not “seeing” race come from? What are the origins of “colorblindness” and what are their current consequences? Here’s the disturbing legacy you’re building on if you take a “colorblind” approach to race.

[W]hy must the acknowledgment of my beauty be predicated on how well and how often I contort to attempt to fit into some kind of ideal? Why can’t I be all the iterations of me and still be beautiful?

Can you name an elite female athlete? If you asked me to name someone other than Venus or Serena Williams I’d have a tough time.

No black man, woman, or gender non-conforming person is safe from the terrorism of police brutality and racist white people’s actions against us, let alone our most vulnerable citizens, our children.

Looking back at childhood photos now is bittersweet. In the moment the camera caught, I'm always smiling, but I wasn't always a happy child. I was fat-shamed almost daily.