"What happened to your skin!?" My mother's voice erupted as I returned from a delightful summer day at the waterpark.
I was only 8.
She dragged me into the shower and vigorously scrubbed my freshly darkened limbs with papaya soap.
It was supposed to make me look more...acceptable.
I don't blame her, though. She was bullied as a child because of her dark skin.
She didn't want me to go through what she went through-- and I don't blame her.
I honestly never thought I'd directly experience racial bias.
I thought my sincerity, wit, and charm would supersede any prejudice related to the superficial.
Oh, how naive of me.
You'd think a direct attack is someone getting up in your bubble, screaming at you to "go back to your home country" (FYI I was born in California and I've never been to the Philippines--ever).
Discrimination is when you get excluded or judged harshly for frivolous reasons.
Discrimination is disregarding a candidate's skills, experience, and drive and dismissing them because their "communication style" doesn't line up with your own.
Rather than feeling ashamed, giving up, hiding, conforming, and starting over and over and over again-- I will keep going.
I will change the tech world so that my own child, should they choose this path, will not face the inane hardship I had to.
We will tear down this broken system, brick by boring brick .
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