Dear people of Trader Joe's,

 

I would like to start off by saying thank you for showing me a struggle my family faces, that I wouldn’t have been able to see without your help. Without you all, I wouldn’t have been able to realize how I am categorized differently from my family. Thank you for bringing the word “white-passing” into my dictionary and labeling it on me. I had always known that my skin tone differed from that of my sister, mom, and dad, but before you all, I had not realized how much of a difference it made when it came to the way I was treated by people in society.

 

Before reading Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine, I never fully understood what you all were doing to my family. I knew that there was a matter of race/ethnicity behind your actions, but I could never pinpoint it exactly.  I knew of the word “microaggression,” but I always assumed it meant an action made verbally or physically because of race. Claudia Rankine’s novel helped me understand the full definition of microaggression and all its categories and understand that that was what my family was experiencing. Rankine’s novel also helped me realize that I am a bystander in my family's experience with you all at Trader Joe's. I was old enough to recognize what was going on, yet I never did anything about it. I connected to Rankine’s story about the woman’s friend who didn’t acknowledge the microaggression she experienced and told her to let it go. “Your friend refuses to carry what doesn't belong to her.” (Rankine 55). I connected to this story because like the friend I didn’t recognize the privilege I had because of my skin color and instead of acknowledging the experience my family had, I tried to tell them that it shouldn’t get to them. When I should have been reassuring them of what happened and explaining to them how harmful it could be.

 

What I still can’t wrap my head around and I truly will never understand is how you all could look at my family, my family like aliens when they spoke our native tongue. I say this because you all are the same people who enjoy our food, our music, vacation on our beaches, and enjoy parts of our culture, but when it comes down to it, you dislike the people. Why is it that our language triggers you to look at us with disdain and instills an image of who we are without you even knowing us? How can you like all the things we create, but not us?

 

Before we even entered Trader Joe’s my mom warned me that the people inside could be a little racist and I was confused when I didn’t experience that. Yet, my family saw how you all looked at them, how you all moved away, and how you all suddenly seemed to treat them differently than the rest of the people in Trader Joe's. How is it fair that my skin tone being cooler and “whiter” seemed to earn me a pass into the world of shopping for organic fruits and vegetables, but my family's melanin skin seemed to get shunned away? How am I different from them? I speak Spanish too, I am Hispanic too. “Perhaps this is how racism feels no matter the context—randomly the rules everyone else gets to play by no longer apply to you…” (Rankine 30). 

 

So I am “white-passing”. Is that why I was welcomed? Well, I don’t want your welcome, in fact, no one should have to receive a welcome. No matter who you are you should be accepted into any space, regardless of what group you belong to. I am so grateful that now that I understand more of the underlying meaning of your actions I can reflect on them. I hope this reflection of your actions can give you a perspective as well as motivate you to look at your actions and their effects. 

 

To conclude, I hope that you all have taken a step back to reflect on how your actions affected my family. We went to Trader Joe's to get groceries like the rest of you, but what differs is that we all left with a sinking feeling of feeling like an alien in one’s own land. I would recommend you all, aggressor or bystander, to pick up a copy of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine to help you understand how your actions and silence affect others. The novel can help you all see into the mind of the person experiencing a microaggression and how to you it may seem like nothing, but it means so much more to the person it is happening to. I leave you with this series of questions that may help you find the root of why you all acted the way you did. Why did I feel that way when a language was spoken? Why do I move away when someone with color in their skin approaches? Why do I act this way around people of color and not white people? Best of luck on your journey of self-reflection.

 

Best wishes,

 

Valerie Dominguez (Daughter of the only Hispanic family at Trader Joe's)

Work Cited

 

Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014.