Uploaded July 2017 | Updated September 2026, 16 hours ago
"I am a mother. I am an interracial Jew. My dad is white.
I think for him it was kind of a reality check that he had brown kids and he could see the way that the world treated you when you’re brown. And my mom knew what it was like to be discriminated against because of your skin color.
When people ask 'What are you?' I say, 'I’m human.'
I’ve always had mostly white friends and I got flack from my white friends about 'You know, you say you’re all of these things, but you don’t say that you’re black.' And I was just like, 'Well, I don’t identify as black. That’s not who I am.' And he was just like, 'Well, it is who you are.'
That dissonance between how I view myself and how the world viewed me didn’t really snap into focus until college and that’s when people started questioning me on my Jewish identity, too. I thought, 'Oh great. People just get to decide what you are, and it doesn’t matter what you say you are because they’re the ones who are perceiving you.'
Winslow, you know, as his parent, I’m afraid that people are just gonna tell him who to be. I don’t accept that. I want him to define himself." - Erin C., #LivesofWomen
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Lives of Women
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"I am a mother. I am an interracial Jew. My dad is white.
I think for him it was kind of a reality check that he had brown kids and he could see the way that the world treated you when you’re brown. And my mom knew what it was like to be discriminated against because of your skin color.
When people ask 'What are you?' I say, 'I’m human.'
I’ve always had mostly white friends and I got flack from my white friends about 'You know, you say you’re all of these things, but you don’t say that you’re black.' And I was just like, 'Well, I don’t identify as black. That’s not who I am.' And he was just like, 'Well, it is who you are.'
That dissonance between how I view myself and how the world viewed me didn’t really snap into focus until college and that’s when people started questioning me on my Jewish identity, too. I thought, 'Oh great. People just get to decide what you are, and it doesn’t matter what you say you are because they’re the ones who are perceiving you.'
Winslow, you know, as his parent, I’m afraid that people are just gonna tell him who to be. I don’t accept that. I want him to define himself." - Erin C., #LivesofWomen
Want more stories? SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly/LOWsubs
......
Lives of Women
Follow for more stories:
Facebook: facebook.com/livesofwomen
Instagram: instagram.com/livesofwomen
Twitter: twitter.com/liveswomen
YouTube: youtube.com/livesofwomen
