“I was squeaking down the linoleum hallway with my friend when she informed me with a smack of her bubble gum and a toss of her blonde hair that my sister was in fact, not real. As far as I knew, my sister was real. We had real fights. We exchanged real eye-rolls behind our parents’ backs. We slipped real ‘I’m sorry’ notes under each other’s doors after calling each other names. We were real sisters.”
‘You wouldn’t know, you don’t have a real sister.’ I was in third grade, when I suddenly stopped.’: Transracial adoptee declares she is ‘brown and deeply connected to her white family’
‘I don’t want you with those black kids,’ a mom whispered at the park. Being white, she didn’t know they’re MINE.’: Mom ‘livid’ after woman interrupts ‘innocent play time’ with hate, encourages us to ‘intervene, love one another’
“Every time her child went back to playing with my kids, like clockwork the mom came back and told her to stop. This poor child was waiting for her mother to not be paying attention so she could go back to laughing and playing. Enough was enough. ‘Hi, how are you? I just want you to know those little black girls you’re so afraid of, those are MY children.’ She turned beet red.”
‘I found a welt on my son’s forehead, bruising. Throughout the attack, this little boy laughed, smiled.’: Mom ‘enraged’ after her son attacked in locker room at school
“My son was attacked. In a violent, malicious manner. As one student repeatedly hit him over and over again, others not only held my son down so the student could hit him, but encouraged the attack. Not one school administrator contacted me on the way to the school.”
‘You don’t belong here and your color is awful!,’ a child said to my 5-year-old African American son on his first day of school.’: Mom worries for her adopted children at school this year, says despite ‘all the goodness, there is hurt’
“Before he even stepped foot into his new classroom, a child on the playground came up to him. At age 5, my son had to come home and tell our family this as we sat around the dinner table. I had to look away so he wouldn’t see my tears.”
‘We are not your ‘typical’ family. We are white parents with a black child.’: Mom sends heartfelt letter to teacher ‘advocating’ for her black son this school year
“Eli is usually the only black student in his classroom. We are not a ‘colorblind’ family. Eli’s hair is a big part of who he is and how he expresses himself. Please don’t let anyone touch it without his permission. Please provide him with colored paper, pencils or markers that represents his skin color. Not many teachers in our small town think about this subject.”
‘I mentioned I had dated men of different ethnic backgrounds. He lost it, screaming, yelling, cursing.’: Woman leaves abusive relationship after being ‘berated’ for how she ‘shouldn’t date outside my race’
“I quietly packed my bag in the morning as he was sleeping. I ran out of that house like I’d never see freedom again and jumped in my car. I remember shaking the whole way to work, terrified he was following me. I never looked back.”
‘I told a friend how excited I am for my daughter to see The Little Mermaid movie. I was so proud my daughter would see herself in Ariel, a beautiful Black princess.’
“My friend didn’t understand the big deal. She ‘doesn’t see color.’ She thinks it doesn’t matter what race or ethnicity characters are, because we are all ‘the same.’ Can I be honest? You. Are. Wrong.”
‘You can have kids. Why adopt a BROWN baby? Look at that pretty blonde baby you made!’: Mom proud of her ‘beautiful biracial family’ despite hate and ‘constant stares’
“My siblings have brown curly hair, big brown eyes, and cocoa-colored skin. I have blonde hair, light skin, and blue eyes. We could not look more different from one another. But they have been my family since the moment I was born. I don’t know anything different.”
‘We found McKenzie in the bathroom. She hung herself. Get here now!’ It was too late.’: 9-year-old girl commits suicide after relentless bullying, family’s grief inspires ‘anti-bullying’ foundation
“They kept calling her ‘ugly and black’. At first, she wasn’t afraid. But it got to the point where too many were joining in and it became a daily occurrence. During the drive, I prayed for a miracle as my son slept behind me. I just wanted to see her. To make sure she would be okay. But I’d never get to see her alive again. Now the only way I can ever be with her again is at a grave site. McKenzie Adams. I will not let here name die.”
‘I put it in his hands,’ he said repeatedly, crying and rocking back and forth. I was frozen in shock. The police thought he found my father’s ‘medicine’ in the back of his truck.’
“My heart was beating out of my chest. I didn’t know what to say or do. I silently got up and left. That was the last time I ever saw him.”
