!!!! poc speak !!!!

always love who you are// bluelarrymuffin

i live in los angeles, but in the valley, in a mostly mexican/white neighborhood. i live on a "white" street, so i remember when i was growing up, the neighbors would look at my family weirdly, because we are a mixed family (my mom is mexican and my dad is african american). during my elementary school days, i was surrounded by white girls with long blonde hair and blue eyes, and i was really one of the only ones with kinky hair and brown eyes. i got made fun of a lot, and i fell into a depression at the age of 11. when i entered middle school, it was kind of different, but not really. everyone was different; it wasn't just one race anymore. i started getting called "white-washed" for being myself, and to this day i still don't know what that means, because you can't act a certain race. in 8th grade, i started wearing naturally to school and people started calling me ghetto, and racial slurs, and again, what does my hair have to do with who i am? i started hating the african american side of me, and i closed myself off from a lot of people. i spent months trying to figure out who i was, and at times, i still don't know who i am yet, but i'm still young. of course i'm not going to know who that is just yet. i'm a freshman in high school, and the school i'm attending is so accepting. nobody cares what you look like. obviously high school is way different than middle school or elementary school, but i love who i am and i wouldn't want to change it for the world. i guess what i'm trying to say is, you can't change who you are and you should always love who you are, whether you're a poc or caucasian. it doesn't matter. we're all equal and we should all respect everyone and help bring them up, not down :-) 

-cameron; 14; usa; african american and mexican