• What’s your earliest memory of becoming aware that some people
looked different from you? I grew up on military bases. I think what
you’re probably aiming for is when did I figure out that it MEANT
something. The first conscious othering I knew was our German friends
who had to be vouched for and checked in to visit us on base. In
retrospect, since this was during the terrorism Germany was
experiencing in 1974. It was later that I pieced together that there
were differences in how other kids were treated – and that there was a
reason there were more light skinned families in the Married Officers’
Quarters. Then I went to REALLY white schools in Washington State, in
neighborhoods that were mostly Scandinavian immigrants. I knew I was
the only Native I knew of. I’ve gotten really used to that different
sense of self – but I didn’t look any different.
• What’s your earliest memory of becoming aware of racism? I think I
answered this a bit above. But When I learned of the 60s in school and
thought back to the demographics of Officers’ Country versus the
Enlisted soldiers I was around.
• What’s your earliest memory of becoming aware of your own white
identity? Did you seriously ask this question of Owusu? Our other
visibly BIPOC members? To attempt to answer, I became aware of my
internal conflict in stages and surges, couldn’t give you a specific
one incident.
[Editor’s note: The questions were not meant to be for everyone, each member was to find a question or group of questions that they wanted to respond to. I did not send separate emails to different ethnic groups. But clearly, whiteness is something that the Order has addressed. I leave it here because it is important to also note how we can make errors in this work and yet continue on together, learning from one another. Mir was not the only person that found this question offensive, and for that offense, I apologize.]