The game was rigged from the beginning. It was made to support white suburbia and to have people of color at the bottom of the food chain. Learning about redlining in Mr.

I am American. At least, that’s my nationality. The stigma surrounding the word “American” makes me struggle to identify myself with it. When I am asked this question similar to “Where are you from?” or “What are you?” I always say I’m from the U.S.

I used to live on International Boulevard in Oakland, on the more impoverished side of town. The sounds of guns waking us up at 3 in the morning was like an alarm clock for an early riser, sending panic through my mother whilst my dad slept, unaware of my brother and I hiding under the

For most of the years of my youth, I lived with my grandma on my dad’s side of the family, and I thought differently about each side of the family.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, this environment is all I really know. I’ve never experienced somewhere outside of California consciously; I was only a child when I went to visit Honduras to see family.