My parents grew up without race being a primary social issue. When we moved to the United States, it took some time before they would link negative experiences to race. If I received bad treatment, they wouldn’t immediately assume it was because of race, but instead they would want to know the details of the situation. I grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, so my racial consciousness was shaped by the context of Black people being minorities and being stereotyped. When my elementary school classmate Billy invited the white kids in our class to his birthday party, but excluded me, I was pretty sure
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