I learned about class as a child when I was told I was adopted because my mother was single and not financially secure, therefore was not as deserving of me as my adopted parents were.

I learned about it again as an adult when I found I am not given equal rights as other US citizens, since I am an adult adoptee.

Please open original birth records to adult adoptees nationwide.

Stop Discriminating, please give all adults Equal Access to vital records.

I’m 47, tell me my mothers name, I demand it.

Stop treating me like a criminal, a second class or less-deserving citizen, or as if I am in the witness protection program.

In Texas I first became aware of prejudice in my first Catholic School against Jews and Blacks. I’m so happy to see it changed. Maybe it’s not erradicated, but we’ve come a long way since I became aware in the early 60s. There was only one male Black student in our school and very few Black Catholics in our parish. He was very shy and didn’t seem happy. He eventually left. It was a very white neighborhood. My next Catholic High School had more Black students, but it was also in the minority. However, since some were very athletic, I remember them all being popular.

I remember a lot more prejudice in my first Catholic School than in my second. I don’t know if it was because it was smaller, or if it was because I was younger or if it was because the years of racial tolerance was breaking through in the second school. I spent two years in the first school and four years in the second school. It’s entirely possible, times were catching up in the second school by 1972 when I left.

My father was from Paraguay, my maternal grandfather was from Germany and my maternal grandmother was from Mexico. They seeemed to be all prejudice against African Americans mainly because they didn’t have any in their countries and we didn’t have many African Americans (they were called Blacks in the 60s) in our neighborhood or Church in Houston. But as Blacks moved into our neighborhoods, we moved. My father said he didn’t mind if our next door neighbor was Black, but when he was surrounded by Blacks, he felt uncomfortable.

By the end of their lives, my father (he died in 2001) and my grandfather (he died in 1984) were no longer prejudice. But my grandmother never lost her prejudice (she died in 2005). However the irony is for 10 years, she was the only one who ended up in a nursing home at 98 years old being cared by many African Americans especially men who had to help lift her in and out of bed and wheelchair. I think she never lost her prejudice because she suffered from prejudism herself since she was Hispanic. She felt superior to them, maybe?

None of us six children were ever prejudice I think. One sister almost married a Black man in 1978 and our parents were unhappy. Years later, our parents wouldn’t have minded. Now the grandchildren have relationships with African Americans and it’s much more accepted.

In 2006, I worked for BP (British Petroleum) in the Diversity and Inclusion Department and has an interesting conversation with two male African Americans who were close to my age, late 40s, early 50s. They both said the same thing. They could never get used to saying they were African American. They always said they were Black. They also said, they could never say there were Negro which I assume is what they were called in the 40s, 50s and before.

I was raised Catholic although I can’t say I’m Catholic now. For a long time I never understood why Jewish people were being discriminated against, even here in Houston. I remember one Catholic school teacher proudly say, "I can always tell a Jew." I thought it was a religion, not a heritage. But then, in my part of Houston, we didn’t have Jewish people. However, there is a huge Jewish population in Houston. I just didn’t know them and live there. I finally got the difference many years later. But I still don’t get why they’re treated differently considering they’re such an old religion. I would think they are are a superior religion just because they’re an older religion. Why would the way we believe in God change? Okay, I know Christ was born, but I don’t think he meant for the religion to change the way it did, because after that, Jews became persecuted and it hasn’t stopped even today. Most religions stem from Judaism. But that’s me, a lapsed Catholic, or an agnostic. I would like a happy medium religion between a Jew and Catholic because I am spiritualist. My very Catholic mom laughs at me when I say that.

I believe my earliest memory was when I started public school.  I am Native American and each and every teacher made sure that I knew it and everyone around how proud and ‘special’ i was because of my heritage.  They were well meaning people and i know they cared about me but other kids were not so much in awe of my heritage and made a point to make fun of me, push me around and let me know that Indians were dirty, poor and not worth much except to make fun of them, cowboys and indians, saying ‘how’, making yelping sounds imitating the black and white western movies they saw.  There was a time that i wanted to go and live on the reservation, just to get away from society and be with ‘my kind’.  i grew up in southern california during the early 60’s. This caused me to withdraw from socializing with a lot of other children but then again I became even more competitive and strived to be the best i could be and not care what others thought of me.

What I also learned was the difference between light skinned mexicans and dark skinned, there was a difference! I was shocked that a race could turn against themselves.  If you were light skinned you could be thought of as ‘white’ or caucasian which was acceptable, but if you were dark skinned oh that was another story, and whether you were born in Mexico or California that was another reason for prejudice.  I have a friend who experienced this and when she had children she prayed they would be light skinned so they wouldn’t experience prejudice..