This is Billy, a TikTok enthusiast who grew up with a Black father, white mom, and white-presenting features. In a now-viral video, the 20-year-old shared that he often finds himself in uncomfortable situations where people around him say both stereotypical and downright racist things while thinking there are no people of color around.
Knowing he can't be the only white-presenting biracial person with these experiences, Billy asked others to chime in with their own stories, and the responses are shocking:
1. "I'm half-Chinese. I used to work for Disney and we would have a lot of Japanese guests there. I had coworkers who, directly after helping a Japanese guest, would start mocking them. Usually, for the shock value, I'd immediately tell them I was Asian and they'd be like *covers mouth with hand*."
2. "I didn't really realize how racist some people are until I was in an all-white space and people didn't realize that I'm mixed. For example, I was at a pool party one time and this guy asked me, 'What are you?' I was like, 'I'm mixed.' He asked me with what and I was like, 'Black and white.' And he was like, 'So you're a half N-word.' I was like, what? Why is that the first thing that came to your head?"
3. "I am Mexican and one time I was dating this guy, and his grandpa had just moved to a different house, and he said, 'Yeah, I grew up over here... but it's really different now.' I was like, 'How so?' And he's like, 'Well, there's a lot of Mexicans and Blacks who live over here now. You don't want to live in a neighborhood like that.' I said, 'You don't? Why wouldn't you want to live in a neighborhood with really good food and really cool people?'"
4. "When I was in beauty school, I was going to one of my friend's houses, and her mom asked me, 'Does it gross you out to touch N-word hair?'"
5. "I used to work in sales, and this one time, a white lady came into the store and asked me where she could find XYZ. I was busy at the time, so I said to her, 'Oh, you can just see my colleague over there. He will be able to show you where you can find what you're looking for.' She looked over at him, she looked back at me, and she goes, 'What? The fat little (insert racial slur).'"
6. "If you've worked in film before, you know 11 hours is a normal day. One time, an actress cried to the director. She said, 'My feet hurt, it's time to wrap.' The director said, 'One more take.' The actress said, 'OK, then you're going to pay for my medical bills.' I've never seen a director say wrap so quick in my life. This girl who overheard had the audacity to say, 'Oh, I'm so glad the actress went ghetto on them.' I said, 'Ghetto?' She said, 'Yeah, Black!'"
7. "One of my friends suggested that the way to 'take care' of the illegal immigration 'problem' in Arizona was to just gun down all of the illegal immigrants at the border."
8. "How about the time that a hate group started at my high school called the NHRA (N-word Hating Redneck Association), and my friends were curious as to why I was completely pissed off."
9. "One time, we were talking about an opposing basketball team. We were talking about why the team is so good, and somebody goes, 'They're only good because they let all the charity cases on the team.' There were no white people on this team."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.