The WYSO Race Project invites two everyday people from the Miami Valley to talk about their life experiences through the prism of skin color.
These conversations can be difficult and controversial. But they can be healing and build understanding.
Today, we hear from Rafaela Santos and Stephanie Pierce.
Rafaela Santos: So my name is Rafaela Santos, normally called Ella. I'm an artist originally from New York City. Culturally, I'm a Black Puerto Rican. I’m an empty nester, married for many years with three kids and a grandson.
Stephanie Pearce: I am Stephanie Pierce. I am a white lady. I'm 42 years old. I'm a mother of five. I am a tailor by trade, and I live here in Yellow Springs.
Santos: Well, Stephanie, when were you first aware of your race?
Pearce: Very young. My mother's sister had mixed race children, and so I grew up being very aware that I was white and they were not. Christmas time was, there was, you know, no getting around the obvious differences, the way that we were treated versus the way that my cousins were treated. Just in the way, the means of gift giving from our family members. I gave them lots of the things that I was given. You know, and I spent time with their Black family. And so I got, you know, that perspective as well.
Rafaela, when were you first aware of your race?
Santos: I had a friend who was a white Puerto Rican, and I remember her mother saying, “Don't forget to rub the lemon on your elbows because you don't want black elbows.” I internalized that as: having dark elbows was not nice. And I remember not knowing how to ask my mom, who was a Black Puerto Rican, Why are people trying to rub the darkness off of them?
So I wanted to ask you, Stephanie, do you think that racism exists?
Pearce: Absolutely. In my professional life. I can think of two times that I am certain that I was given a job and a job was taken from someone because I was white, and I was put in that place, you know, and because they were a person of color, they were taken out of that position. And the first time I was very young, and I just proceeded on and stayed in the position.
And the second time I was older, and I could not. I watched them slowly work out the full time person who was a male and a person of color and, he had an incident, a family emergency, and he was not able to come to work, and he was let go. I'm a parent, you know, I have a family.
There were times that I just could not be there, and no one even batted an eye. You know, that took about a month for me to feel very unsettled after he was gone, that I just could not stay in that position anymore.
Santos: Good to hear. I was thinking, when you were talking about your job and an example that I had. I worked for attorneys for many years, and you know, pre-law. I remember, I decided to go get another job. It was midtown Manhattan, and I went for an interview. I thought I was a shoo in.
I remember going in and knocking on the door to the firm. You know, it's like, “Oh, the job was filled.” I said, “No, but so-and-so whatever.” “No”. And the door was closed. And I call my friend who referred me, and he was like, “No, he knows you. He's fine, you know?” And another attorney who’d said, “You know, she's great.”
And I remember walking away so hurt and I got the sense that he expected for me to look differently from my voice. And I'm like, yeah, I know what you expect, but, and you're surprised that this body, this shell, can speak and is intelligent and can argue a point, etc.
Pearce: That’s powerful.
Santos: This is a hope, right? But I wish to have more equality, before anything else, in education. And I've seen, I grew up in the South Bronx, so I saw the dilapidated tables and the torn books. And I realize how education has been sort of chopped off at the knees right now. But I think before anything, if you start off with all of the kids getting the same education, then slowly that generation will begin to change the world. I think that's where it begins.
Pearce: Yeah, yeah.
Santos: Thank you Stephanie. Oh my God, this is, this was great.
Pearce: Yeah yeah I agree. Well, thank you as well, Rafaela. I'm very, very glad that we did this.
Santos: Yeah, so am I.