Sunanya’s Story

I remember when I was 10 I went to summer classes in Atlanta. I have a very strong memory of sitting in a science class, and I still remember the professor’s name because I think I’m still traumatized by that incident. The professor asked some question and I raised my hand, and he said: “Don’t raise your hand, your underarms will smell like other brown people’s underarms.” I was horrified; I remember I started crying because I was really upset. Then he apologized. I didn’t know it was not okay to say that, so I didn’t really react except for my tears because I didn’t know why he was being mean to me. It didn’t register as race. When I look back at it now, I know it was a form of racism but then I had no idea.