Hello, I’m Lauren and my partner in crime is Audrey. We are two twenty-something gals living and working in the Second City. Oh yeah, we’re also minorities. You’d think, in a city as diverse as Chicago, we’d blend right in. But due to our ethnically ambiguous features, sometimes we just stick right out.
Is she Puerto Rican? Is she Black, Chinese, Mediterranean (I get this one a lot), Khazakstani, Portugese or Laotian?
Sometimes people just aren’t at ease until they know what team you’re playing for. We are often approached and interrogated by people on the street who are dying to know. Sometimes, however, the opposite is true and we are mistaken for white. I can’t even count the number of times I have been on the receiving end of a racist joke that was told before the offending party found out that I identify as black. Whoops.
Sure this leads to a lot of uncomfortable situations, but it also leads to a lot of interesting/heartbreaking/hilarious stories concerning race relations in America. We would like to share those with you and encourage you to share your stories with us.
Yeah! This project sounds great. Let’s hear some more! I am white as they come, although one time a Cougar asked me what ethnicity I was. I told her Belgian.