Thanks to Jewssip for this clip of Hebrew Mamita, Vanessa Hidary doing her thang.

College was shocking for me. In college, I really experienced racism, from people who refused to address me in English and as anything other than “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” to people who called my hair nappy or told me my writing wasn’t good because English wasn’t my first language. (It is.) The most racism I had ever experienced before was at home hearing my mother’s endless racist tirades or at school where I was called “white girl.”

College was a rude awakening. I remember that when I told a classmate in one of my English classes that I was Dominican, she said she was dating someone Dominican. And then, she said, like it was a compliment, but like you, he doesn’t look Dominican either and she smiled. He had beautiful pale skin, she told me. I remember being so angry and so silent. I thought, I do look Dominican, you jerk, because I am Dominican.