Racial identity has always been an interesting subject for me. My dad is US born and raised, but my mother is from the Caribbean, and my maternal relatives are the ones I grew up around and have had the most contact with in my life. Technically I suppose I'm "African American," but I've never classified myself that way; Caribbean thought and culture is so different to African American thought and culture that I've always had trouble identifying with the black community in the U.S. I didn't even have a lot of contact with black people--or any minority, for that matter-- outside of my family until eighth grade, when we moved to a predominantly black/Asian area of California and I switched from private school to public school. I became the resident oreo from that point on, but that's another story.

It's funny how our experiences shape our perception of our race.