(SOUTH SEATTLE EMERALD) – I remember in my first-grade class, two years after 9/11, only moments before the U.S. declared war on Iraq, feeling this uncomfortable glare and attention from my teacher as she looked at me when she called my name for roll call.
Granted, my family had come from Somalia only a few months before, and I felt this discomfort every year before moving to a place where I went to a diverse school and community in fifth grade.
All through my life until college, that feeling continuously came up for me as I transitioned into adult life. During my teenage years, I made myself more palatable to the white gaze.
