Biracial Family in a White World
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Biracial Family in a White World
Dawn Thomas
ETH 125
August 1, 2010
Gary Poulin
Biracial Family in a White World
I am in a unique and strange place. I am white and my husband and children are African American. It is amazing how the Whites view someone that is not white. In my community, most of the families are of one race within the household and are white. The racial demographics for Fort Lewis is 60.44% white, 20.34% black 6.44% from 2 or more races, 1.36 Native American,3.41 Asian, 1.79 Pacific Islander, 6.23 form other races,13.13 % are Hispanic/Latino. (Fort Lewis, n.d.)
I have noticed how my family is treated differently in the stores, at a scene of or accident. How my children are treated differently in their jobs and when people find out their mother is white. Traveling with my family during PCS moves, if we were in an all white town, I will go in the store and pay for what we needed and come out and leave, just for safety sake. There is an unwelcomed feeling for my husband in some towns, which for me is sad to see because he is a hard working person, serving his country and yet he is still not welcome in some areas of the country. I think the advantage of me being white is I can “fit” in to the white community. I am not asked a thousand times they can help me and followed around the store like I will shoplift. A real wake up call for me in the way whites and blacks are treated come to me when my husband and I went in to rent a car, my husband asked to rent a car and the clerk looked at him and said they did not have any to rent. As we turned to walk out a white woman came in and said that she would like to rent a car and the clerk said no problem. In that split second, what changed, other than the color of the skin! We lived in Tacoma and by our apartment was a very big hill to get to the apartments. A woman and her passenger (black & young) lost power and rolled down the hill and into the major street. My husband and I and white woman...
Dawn Thomas
ETH 125
August 1, 2010
Gary Poulin
Biracial Family in a White World
I am in a unique and strange place. I am white and my husband and children are African American. It is amazing how the Whites view someone that is not white. In my community, most of the families are of one race within the household and are white. The racial demographics for Fort Lewis is 60.44% white, 20.34% black 6.44% from 2 or more races, 1.36 Native American,3.41 Asian, 1.79 Pacific Islander, 6.23 form other races,13.13 % are Hispanic/Latino. (Fort Lewis, n.d.)
I have noticed how my family is treated differently in the stores, at a scene of or accident. How my children are treated differently in their jobs and when people find out their mother is white. Traveling with my family during PCS moves, if we were in an all white town, I will go in the store and pay for what we needed and come out and leave, just for safety sake. There is an unwelcomed feeling for my husband in some towns, which for me is sad to see because he is a hard working person, serving his country and yet he is still not welcome in some areas of the country. I think the advantage of me being white is I can “fit” in to the white community. I am not asked a thousand times they can help me and followed around the store like I will shoplift. A real wake up call for me in the way whites and blacks are treated come to me when my husband and I went in to rent a car, my husband asked to rent a car and the clerk looked at him and said they did not have any to rent. As we turned to walk out a white woman came in and said that she would like to rent a car and the clerk said no problem. In that split second, what changed, other than the color of the skin! We lived in Tacoma and by our apartment was a very big hill to get to the apartments. A woman and her passenger (black & young) lost power and rolled down the hill and into the major street. My husband and I and white woman...