#like ??????? yes???? are we living on the same planet? as someone who HIRES people aren't you aware of the job market at all?

[sophiaphile]

just cried my way home from an interview for a managerial position. i learned in the interview that starting pay caps at $16/hour. fucking kill me.

oh and it is only 10-15 hours a week.

these things should be in the listing.

[spiritroots]

I know you have good intentions with this and I respect and hear your perspective. However, please don't assume that my racial identity has anything to do with ignorance about the history of where race constructions come from. I've studied African American history, the history of slavery, Civil Rights history... it's my family history and it's had a direct impact on my family and my life regardless of what racial identity you would choose to assign to me based on my looks. I am well aware of the One Drop Rule. I am also aware of the countless mixed race people with the same ancestry as me throughout American history who were treated by society as black people whether or not they embraced that. Yes, times have changed. There aren't any lies about me or who I am being perpetuated here because my ethnicity is and has been racialized as black. So let me give you some insight into why I identify as half African American, because I sure as hell never had a choice about being born mixed race.

When I was a little kid, like two or three, I told my mom, "Daddy and I are white, and you're black." Simple kid logic: we look white, therefore we are white. You better believe she shut down that down real quick. From that day forward, she spent the rest of my life teaching me black history, black culture, and helping me understand not just those things but my own connection to them.

Growing up and hearing about how my grandma went to a segregated school and my family's countless stories about being black in America, I understood early on too that I had immense amounts of priviledge before I ever learned the phrase "white priviledge." I am very conscious that there are all kinds of forms of prejudice, racism, colorism, and other systematic types of oppression that I have not experienced and probably never will because of how I am consistently perceived as white by strangers. I have massive amounts of white passing priviledge, and I try to make myself as aware as possible of the fact that I don't experience the colorism that my family does, my fiance does, my friends do, and that black and brown people all over the planet do. I would never ever claim to know what the experience of having darker skin is like. I don't know, and I will never know.

But it's very presumptuous of you to assume that I am white or that I have white priviledge just because I have white skin. White passing priviledge and white priviledge fundamentally aren't the same thing. My dad and my white family grew up without having to wrestle with and think about the complexities of their racial identity since day one of their lives. I did, and I never had a choice about that. Throughout my whole childhood, I had people thinking all the time that my mom and my grandma were my babysitters because how on earth could we be related? I became completely used to the norm that people would look at me and assume I wasn't related to my own family members and that they were just the hired help to look after me. Someone even complimented my grandma for "caring for me so well" and asked her what rate she charges because they wanted her to work for them too.

I don't talk about or acknowledge my mom's white side of the family much. When I was about seven or eight, my mom met her uncle for the first time. After having lunch together, she asked him when they'd see each other next and if she could bring me along to him meet too. He said, "There won't be a next time, and I don't want to meet your daughter. Having black family members is like having gays in the family, and people can't find out." They completely cut off me and my maternal side of the family for most of my life because of our race. It wasn't until a couple years ago I finally met just one person from that part of the family.

The last year or two, I've gotten into hours long yelling matches with my own dad over issues to do with race including my racial identity. Every time I spend time with my white family in New Zealand, as much as I love them with all my heart, I have to deal with racist comments everyday. Regardless of whether or not you personally consider me black, my white family sure does and their racism around that has caused me a hell of a lot of pain and hurt. I don't experience colorism, but I have absolutely experienced racism in ways that have profoundly impacted my life.

You presume to know a lot about me and other white passing people by saying that "if I look white, I am white." That statement simply doesn't reflect my life experience, the way I was raised, or how any of my family members white or black sees me. If you want to hear more stories and examples from other white passing people of color, check out the #whitepassing tag on @weareallmixedup

I have this question that's not related to witchcraft. I'm from Argentina, a country in Latin America (in case you don't know it), am I a person of color? Because I'm pale but I heard that it has nothing to do with only skin but the country you were born in. So am I a person of color despite that I'm pale and blonde? Sorry if I sound ignorant, I just really don't have a clue.

I’m white, so I’m not really the best person to ask. @witches-ofcolor and @spiritroots are often happy to answer questions like this :)