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Yes, Mixed Kids Face Racism at Home.
I’m shocked at the shock of the Royal Family Interview.
When I was a kid in a car seat, I realized that white people saw my mom as some kind of savior to a brown child.
As my mom was filling her car with gas, a well-dressed woman we didn’t know came up to my mom and said, “I just wanted to say, it’s so nice what you’re doing.”
“What?”
“Adopting a third-world baby.”
My mom laughed and told the woman I was, in fact, her biological child. She looked shocked and she apologized and left.
When a white person has a mixed-looking kid, it’s a statement. It’s…charity. They’re doing something above-and-beyond by dating someone darker.
Colorism is extremely common, regardless of race. Even people who are not white think about what their kids would look like if they married lighter or darker. So the fact that this was a conversation within the Royal Family didn’t shock me…it’s a conversation in regular households.
Did…did people not realize that?
Maybe it’s because I’ve dealt with being mixed my whole life. I take this knowledge for granted. But I’ve been told to lose weight to look “less Latina.” I’ve been told to “say I’m Italian.” I’ve been told that if…