Persons of Colour is a community portrait project documenting stories told by PoC, from sustained life-long experiences to incidents of harassment and microaggressions.
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#6 the story of M.R.
I was 14 when my family suggested that I added a white surname to my name... it sounded silly back then, to be told that they're afraid people would judge me based on my name and that I wouldn't get the same chances as my white peers. But now I get it. I walk into first day of classes, presentations, job interviews and everyone has the same look of surprise. They expected someone white. Every thing I do or say is followed by "where are you from? You have no accent! I've never met someone like you." And we all know that's a lie. They think it's a compliment to tell me that I sound white, or that proved them wrong. It's not. Most of all I feel sorry for my family, I feel sorry that their predictions were true. That a woc would never be considered at the same standard as their white peers. I'm doing a master's degree in business, language, and culture in Chinese. I've had professors and teachers go harder on me at exams and with grades, because they assumed since I am Thai, speaking Mandarin would be a given. For some of them it just went over their heads that it's two completely different languages. They think I had an advantage over my white classmates, and would mark me down for one mispronunciation when my white classmates can hardly say a full proper sentence, and still get higher grades even though they speak with the vocabulary of a 4 year old. I've had white classmates tell me they don't get why I got higher grades in Danish classes, or why I was granted a scholarship over them. They would literally pick me apart and talk about the unfairness than admit that I'm capable of being better at their native language. This picture of me is 2 years old.. nowadays I only do selfies with silly filters. I'm trying to live a little less seriously and be more fun. But I think it's a good representation of me. I'll always laugh in people's faces when they tell me bullshit. I really don't care anymore.