I heard a hiring manager say the n word.
He didn’t know that I am Black. Because I am white too.
The job of your dreams.
No matter your race, or where you're from.
I have heard things that white people may otherwise censor in their conversations, because they assume I am white.
I listen to R&B music.
My kids have blonde hair.
The first time I heard the ‘n word’ I was in kindergarten.
I saw my Black cousin attacked.
In grade one, a white classmate told me my Dad was ‘poopy’.
In grade twelve that same classmate apologized to me. It bothered her all those years.
Straighten your hair they tell me, you’ll look more professional.
I was never more uncomfortable than when we read To Kill A Mockingbird in Grade 4.
My three year old thinks we change colour as we get older.
His Grampy is Black.
I was scared, sad and angry when I heard the hiring manager say the ‘n word’.
He didn’t want to interview the candidate. His name sounded too ‘Black’.
I said nothing. I only told my mom. It made me cry. It made my mom cry too.
The next day I put a photo of me and my interracial family on my desk.
I’m holding my Black father’s arm.
The look of fear on that manager’s face told me he knew what he had done.
We have responsibilities at home to educate our children about anti-racism.
We have responsibilities at work too. to happen at home. And it needs to happen at work too. YOU can affect change, right now. Today.
