Audience-funded nonprofit news
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
-
Listen Listen
Essays
As thousands across L.A. County undergo the process of debris removal in the burn scars, our reporter shares her family’s experience.
Listen
4:29
Sponsored message
More Stories
-
A self-described "Black Valley Girl" pledges to prioritize her dignity after feeling forced to explain herself to a suspicious neighbor. "I don't owe it to anyone to make them feel safe."
-
The day the police came to the door, 5-year-old Esther Lira was terrified. She cowered under the table as officers ran through the house. Then, her brother Charlie did something unexpected.
-
His parents left Mexico and moved their family to a country with better opportunities, "even though they knew the opportunities were not going to be for themselves," but for their children. Now it's up to him to complete his parents' American dream.
-
She'd grown accustomed to the "sprinkling of macro- and micro-aggressions from some of my own people about my skin tone and hair texture" that comes with colorism. But there she was, scrambling to show photos on her phone of "my beautiful chocolate family" when yet another person brought up her light skin.
-
Her mother used to refer to them both as "mutts" when it came to ancestry. Here's why this daughter of Mexican and European-ish parents rejects the label. (And her mom agrees.)
-
A Latina with deep California roots writes: "Perhaps because of my physical appearance and surname, I have occasionally encountered inquisitive types, wondering how long I have lived in this country, or why I do not have an accent." But appearances can be deceiving, as her family history tells.
-
When you grow up identifying as "half white and half Mexican," the task of choosing what box to check on a government form isn't easy.
-
Soon after arriving in the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, he learned he was expected to check "white" for racial identity in the census. But amid the anti-Arab hate that followed the 9/11 attacks, he quickly realized that his "white" label came without the privilege.
-
An American of Indian descent reflects on hate and hope: the hate that generations of her family have experienced -- and, as the mother of three girls, the hope that she has for their future.
-
Facing wage discrimination at the clothing store where she worked as a tailor, his mother decided to quit and strike out on her own. Working out of her basement, she built a clothing business that lasted more than three decades.
-
Growing up as the son of a Filipino immigrant dad and Russian American mom, Mark Moya felt equally attached to both cultures. He still does. Lately, he's been thinking more about their immigrant legacy and how it shaped him, especially after losing his dad earlier this year to COVID-19.
-
Growing up Chicano and gay on the Eastside in the '60s and '70s, James Rojas often felt like an outsider. He found safe space and acceptance amid Black and Brown peers and disco music as "we blurred the L.A. redlining map and found identity, and community, in the fusion."
