Both ends of the World

Alright so Thursday for CIS ((College In Schools)) Writing and Literature
We went to the University of Minnesota to meet up with all the other students in the state taking this class.
Everyone had read the book "The Late Homecomer" written by Kao Kalia Yang. It's the story of a Hmong woman's life as her family adjusted to our American culture here in Minnesota and how she has found out who she is as a Hmong American woman



If you've never heard her speak before you have missed out for sure. Kao Kalia is one of the most inspirational writers and speakers I'd ever heard. Her words are amazingly poetic.

At one point during this event, we were separated into groups of about 10 students, all from different schools.
My group was all filled with white kids, I was the only person of color in my group.

If you haven't caught it yet, I'm not white. I'm also not Hispanic. Actually, I'm black.
Okay well, I'm white, but I'm mixed. My dad's black and my mother is white and I grew up most of my life in white suburban neighborhoods and schools up until I started High school and moved to a more urban city and transferred into an inner-city school.

Problem is, I know that when people look at me, they don't see the black. When my friends look at me, they see everything I'm not. I mean, admit it, how many of you when you saw my senior photos thought I was black? I'm sure none of you huh?

When I was in that group of people, I knew that none of them even suspected that I was black. They looked right at me and thought either white or Hispanic, and I wished so badly that I was a better representation of my race and culture.

I was so envious of Kao Kalia and how she was able to speak to the world about her culture of Hmong ((Highly underrepresented Asian ethnicity)) but I don't have anything to represent fully. I'm shortcoming at least one of my races no matter what I do.

I got an article assignment about these types of topics for the 2010 Census because this is going to be the first time that people will be able to check more than one box when they say what race they are and with mixed races becoming more and more common so quickly, in 40 years will race even matter anymore with this melting pot in our society?

I'll make sure to post my information about the articles I write throughout the next month or two.

Post again soon
XOXO
~*Riah