Throughout my life, there were times where I have experienced racism because of my skin color. However, because my skin is lighter than some of my family and friends, I only experience racism to a certain degree and it mainly happens when my family and I travel outside of New York. There were times where I wanted to ask, "Can you see me equal to you despite the color of my skin?"

Coming from a Puerto Rican family, there were a number of encounters where people look disgusted, confused or even offended when I walk around in public. Sometimes when I tell people that I am Latina, they give me a look of surprise and sometimes respond with,"You don't look Hispanic!". And that just makes me upset because it makes me feel like I have to look a certain way in order to show people that I am Latina. Can you see me as a Latina despite what I look like and not show disgust about it?

Sometimes there are people that I know who can be racist towards my family and I. One time, one of my neighbors told my father that he is "not really Hispanic" because he knows English and got an education. I bring this up even though it does not involve me personally, there are many people who believe that Latinos/Latinas are unwilling to learn English because we are from a different country (even though both of my parents were born in the US and speak English very well). Despite what country Latinos are born in, however, there will be people who will believe that Latinos can't speak a word of English, even though that is not true. Can you see me or my family without thinking that we don't know English?

Even though I went through and still go through racism today, I want to educate people about Latinos/Latinas and show how we are humans that deserve equality as well despite our looks, skin color, and knowledge on English. Can you see Latinos/Latinas as people who deserve equality?