I always feel unlucky that I didn't end up with my mom's skin darker skin color. I think that she has a beautiful skin tone, and unlike me, she never has to convince people or deal with eye rolls when she tells people she is Native American. However, although my mom is very proud of her heritage, she tells me that I am lucky that I have lighter skin because I don't have to deal with a lot of the stuff that she has had to deal with in her life.
As you would expect in a mostly white town in the 60's and 70's she and her family were not treated that well. Even after more than 20 years, she still gets treated poorly. Take for example, an instance from this past weekend:
Late one evening she and my dad were leaving my sister's house following a visit with their granddaughter. My dad was going a little over the speed limit in city of Sheboygan Falls so was pulled over. Everything about the procedure was normal, until the police officer asked my mom, who was the passenger, for her ID. My mom, being any normal person, asked why. The police officer said it was just normal procedure. Funny...I don't ever remember having to show my ID being a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over. I was once even pulled over in Sheboygan Falls (for going 45 in a 45 mph zone, by the way) and they didn't ask my mom, who was my passenger, for her ID.
Later that night, my mom looked up what was standard procedures for police officers when pulling over a vehicle. The information she found stated that an office would only ask for other passengers IDs when there is suspicious behavior. I guess the suspicious behavior would be being a person of color in Sheboygan Falls.
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