The Real America: The Tangled Roots of Race and Identity

By: Teresa Wiltz

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Synopsis: Growing up, Teresa Wiltz always knew that she was black. Her parents, the mixed-race descendants of both the enslaved and the enslavers—and a stray American Indian or two—made it abundantly clear: we&’re black. Be proud. And she was proud. Problem was, everyone else was always questioning her about her racial bona fides. She grew up bumping against the either/or boxes, being mistaken for everything from Puerto Rican to Moroccan to Brazilian to Ethiopian to South Asian and getting terribly confused by it all. Looking like a generic ethnic means getting stopped by cops in Havana, Cuba, who see her hanging with other Americans and are convinced she is a jinetera, a local prostitute, up to no good. It means being hassled by the customs official in Islamabad, Pakistan, who assumes she&’s Pakistani American, or having a West African cabbie insist, &“Your mother is white and your father is black!&” (Um, nope.) She used to hate it when people asked her, &“What are you?&” and &“What are you mixed with?&” or even, &“Do you speak English?&”—but now, she&’s come to appreciate her family&’s convoluted racial heritage. Because her family story, with its generations of mixing and miscegenating, is very much an American story. A story of the Real America.