"My name is Isabella, born and raised in Coram, NY (Long Island). My mother is Panamanian and Greek. My father is Panamanian and Jamaican. Growing up my identity was "brown". I was neither black nor Hispanic, but simply brown. I remember in elementary school telling one of my white friends, "I'm not black, I'm brown." Simply put, I was scared. Growing up, the majority of kids were white and I was afraid I would stand out. I never knew which side of my heritage to favor, my bl

My mother is African American and my father is Puerto Rican and African American. My family grew up in New York City. My mother is from the Bronx, NY, which is full of Puerto Ricans. My father is from Washington Heights, which some may call "Spanish Harlem," which is where I lived as a child. I grew up with Puerto Rican best friends and a family evenly mixed with both African American and Puerto Ricans. It was normal to me to be around Spanish speaking people. I ate the food,