“I grew up mixed-race in a suburb of Seattle, born to two immigrants who wanted nothing more than for me to be an American in the most abstract sense of the term. Whiteness was the default, and often felt like the goal. Still, the day-to-day inconveniences of racism are as evident now as they were then. I move train carriages when I’ve been told, through words and through actions, that people like me have no place in spaces like these; I’ve left jobs where I was made to feel like tolerating racism was part of my quarterly performance goals.
When I walk into a room and made to feel unwelcome, I wonder why I am there, and leave if no clear objective materializes. It would be wonderful, I think as I enter an all-white space, to not have to consider whether the sour look on someone’s face is because they now have to watch their words around me. When I try to explain the tiny psychic costs of worrying what my presence might mean, many people plead, “Why must everything be about race?” I couldn’t agree with them more. Why must everything be about race?”
Nathan Ma — Adrian Piper’s Catalysis Taught Me How To Resist Everyday Racism
