“ Damn Ma, bring dat a** over here.”
“ You can call me Papi anyday”
“ Hey Kelsey, can smell that?”  “No”  “ Yeah that’s right, get back into the kitchen where you belong and do your job.”
“ Why do you look so damn angry all the time, you’re too beautiful to look angry.”
“ Kelsey, why
“ Kelsey, why are you so focused on race, it's not a problem anymore.”
“ Girl, I want your body and tan, I can't believe you don't like yourself.”
“ Kelsey, sometimes you have to be the quiet type for guys to like you, or else you’ll scare them  way, you're already latina as is, you're already scaring them.”
    “ Find a nice white boy to keep you happy.”
“ You will never date a black boy Kelsey, or I swear to God I will kick him out, and if you love him,                                    you’ll go with him. Never bring home a black boy” (I had a crush on a black boy, but I could never tell him, even when I knew he liked me back.)
“ Kelsey stop talking about race, it’s like all you do is defend the black people”
“ If you ever bring a black boy home, I will cuss him out and if he still stays with you, it’s because he actually wants to be with you. I will call him for what he is, which is...."

Growing up, these were only a small amount of racial comments that were told to me and are still being told to me today. I was given this idea that even my race was something that will prevent me things in life. My parents, even to the point of today, still believe that race is now a non-existent problem. My aunt and my grandma were the only two people who were able to talk to me about race, and how it will affect me. My aunt told me how latina women are fetishisized and how my body will only be seen as an object, not a part of who I am. My aunt told me, that me being a woman and a racial minority, will always be an obstacle, but it will be up to me to remain silent and keep on moving forward. My dad would tell me growing up, that a good woman, is a quiet woman. I have grown up, thinking that acknowledging my race, would not be okay, and that I should just act white… I should just act white. Because latinas didn’t know anything, we just cooked and cleaned and birthed babies. White woman did those things happily and still had a job, and a loving white husband. I needed to be white, because that will be the only way I could be successful. I was told to have a body of a latina, the brain of an asian, the voice and personality of a white girl. That is how race was implemented into me, since I was a child. Once again, I knew I was a minority, but I never wanted to because I knew how it would affect me in life.