Ashley Kiboigo

I had just moved, so that meant new school, new friends. I had grown up in a predominantly white town so I was used to being the only black student in class. At this time in my life I hadn’t been faced with blatant discrimination, or maybe I just hadn’t noticed it since I was so young. 

A couple months into the school year, I started playing basketball for my school team and I was beginning to make some great friends. 

One day, on my way to the locker room after practice, another student (white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes) came up to me and asked “So which one of your parents is white?” 

My response, puzzled by this question, was “umm neither.” She continued “well ... your skin is so light, and you don’t sound black.” 

I was puzzled and hurt because my race was all of the sudden questioned, and so important to this white girl... so much so that this, for her, had to be the very first question she ever asked me. She didn’t even know my name.

-Ashley Kiboigo

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