Tainted

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          I have seen my voice diminished and ignored. If you don’t say what they want you to say you are wrong. If you have your own thoughts and ideas you are wrong. You have to follow what the mainstream is saying and doing to fit in. I don’t fit in. They preach inclusion and diversity but what about me? I feel like I'm falling through the cracks. How many of us are there in the cracks? Left as crumbs ignored and abandoned. Why are there cracks to begin with? They show signs of divisions and categories. Are these categories even necessary? They bring about problems like racism and injustice. We are all humans are we not? Why is it so hard to treat each other with kindness and respect? Racial, ethnic, and religious differences shouldn't change how you treat someone. Yet, due to these divides they do. I don't get it. 

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          My family is diverse. A true melting pot filled with interracial and interethnic marriages. We all look different. My siblings and I are different shades. What are the odds that after years of genetic mixing I got all the recessive traits and my brother all the dominant ones? 

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          People can't see past color. My oldest brother and I have the same features but are vastly different complexions. People often deny our siblingship. They question my mothers fidelity. My brother and I are siblings and I have the DNA tests to prove it. But, who is the public to judge and question my family's legitimacy? Just because we look different does not give people the right to question. I think I know if my brother is my brother and our father is our father. 

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          As Selena's father once said, "We gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time. It's exhausting!". It's exhausting and unfair. Why can't society accept people who are mixed? Why can't society stop being so racist? Mixed people are left divided and forced to choose a racial identity. Celebrate your blended culture. Why assimilate into a racist society? 

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          Society needs to do better. America needs to do better. You need to do better. Treat people with respect. Treat people as humans, not a statistic, not as a token, not as a liability. It shouldn't be that hard. Yet, for some, it is... They'd rather treat mixed people as a glitch in the system because we bypass the stereotypes and boundaries a racist world has established. Not knowing what to "do" with us doesn't warrant ignoring us. Stop categorizing us and trying to mold us into your made-up categories... it won't work. These categories are causing many to fall through the cracks. These cracks that shouldn't even be there to begin with. Make it stop.

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~Anonymous