faces of (the human) race #1
Name: LeAndre Daniels
Age: 27
Identifying Race: African
Ethnicity: African
Nationality: American
Current Residence: Los Angeles, California; United States
Part I
When was the first time you experienced racism?
The first time I felt racism was when I was growing up in Oakland, California. My cousin and I were in a local convenience store and we got racially profiled. This was a store that we frequented. On this particular day—I’m not sure if we did something that rubbed the store owner the wrong way—they started following us around the store…
I was 8 or 9 years old. I was real young, but I felt it. I knew that they were following me because of the color of my skin.
How did situations like these affect you as you grew up?
It affected me a lot, in both a positive way and a negative way.
My mother really showed me the importance of dreaming big and not letting any single person get in the way of that. She was a single black woman raising 3 kids and also had her struggle with the law and was in and out of prison. She’s seen it all. Me, growing up in that environment, seeing her go through those things and not having a father to depend on, really just made me be that much stronger. It made me just think, “Who cares what anybody thinks. They can’t hold me back for [being black].