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[Music]
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I'm mixed with African-American and
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white I'm half Vietnamese and half white
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mixed with black and white I'm mixed
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with black and white am the son of a
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white mother and a black father I'm
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Creole and I mixed with black and white
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I mixed black and
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white when I'm asked my race I usually
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say I'm black sometimes I'll say
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biracial but people don't usually
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believe that I'm biracial I look a lot
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more black I stereotypically act a lot
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more black so I us just go with that I I
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typically say black and I think that's
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just a lot of biracial people I'd
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speculate are probably conditioned to
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just especially if you're a mix of white
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and something else it's usually the
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other one that becomes
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dominant
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um I guess sometimes it's just hard to
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give an answer when people ask cuz the
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answer is really complicated I mean
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people don't want to sit through the
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long list of everything that I
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am people don't seem to understand what
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it means to be
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mixed someone ask me my race I usually
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say I'm
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biracial I usually
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say both Asian and white but if I only
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get one then I usually say white
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recently as I've gotten into high school
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I usually just say that I'm black I do
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think a lot of the pressures put on
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multi-racial and biracial people is the
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need that we feel to side with the race
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to pick a race to fit in with one
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particular race so feeling like you have
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to identify with some part of your
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family some part of you if I'm hanging
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out with white people I'll probably
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identify myself as a white person if I'm
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hanging out with black people I'll
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probably ident identify myself like as a
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black person and a lot of times it's a
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lot easier to go with the race that
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people assume you are and say and tell
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you that you are than it is to explain
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to them that you're mixed I think uh
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when growing up depending on the crowd
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that I was hanging around if I was
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hanging around a more white crowd they I
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I tended to feel like they were
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perceiving me as being black and
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whenever I was amongst black people I
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was a little bit anxious about wondering
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if they thought I was too white and so
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um as far as which one I've actually
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embraced I I don't think I've really
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embraced either race um I'm more
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identify myself with like my white side
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of the family just because those are who
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I spend the most time
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around I don't really identify with the
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race um every time someone asks me I
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pretty much give a different answer um
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sometimes I just say black cuz I'm
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legally black that's an easy answer but
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people don't tend to accept that answer
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from someone who is lightskinned and
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have straight hair I say racially
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confused because it gets to a point
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where it's like okay you're mixed but
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you're not really sure because well
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it's I don't really know I just it's
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confusing that's why I say it's racially
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confused you gets to the point where
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it's like I don't even really know what
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race is we all have in our minds
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categories of what defines different
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racial groups so we'll talk about skin
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color skin tone hair type body type and
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these are
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definitely physically caused genetically
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caused traits they phenotypes that
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definitely are are are biological and
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we're born with them um but the fact
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that we're picking those traits for the
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groups and categories that we put humans
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on and that's that's an arbitrary choice
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that we're making I think I said to my
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mom one time that my dad I was like Dad
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is brown and you're pink and she's like
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well what color are you and I was like
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um well I'm white and then she's like
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well how does that work and I was like
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cuz that's the way God made me but that
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was when I was like five when I was
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young I never really understood the
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concept of race I remember hearing the
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words black and white and looking at the
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colors and think that doesn't look
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anything like me um I know like in first
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grade there's this marker called Sandy
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tan and it was my color so when people
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ask if I was black or white I always
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just said Sandy tan cuz that's the color
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that I identified with because I look
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more black it's easier for me to just
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kind of fit in with black people kind of
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no questions asked I think biracial
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people have a tendency to hang out with
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people who more so look how they
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look I usually hang out
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with very Caucasian black people like
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the the black people who are more
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inclined to like go to Lakeside you know
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the less predominantly African-American
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black people does that make sense I hang
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out with black white asian it doesn't
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really
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matter it depends I don't know it
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sometimes depends on the time of year
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like during football season I hang out
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with more black people during soccer
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season and hang out with more white
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people so it really depends on the time
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of year and I think that's part of the
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struggle I don't want use the word
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struggle but that's part of the for lack
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of a better word the struggle of trying
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to find a group to fit in with when I
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was young I went to private school so it
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was pretty much all white people I went
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to public school and I was kind of
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having an identity crisis and I tried to
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hang out as much as I could with black
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people to try and like figure out what I
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am and now I just my friends are as
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mixed as I am
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um probably hanging around around like
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my cousins that are my same age on my on
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the white side of my family and just
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like no one really gets that we're
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cousins all of my white family is really
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like blonde so I look really different
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from them remember we used to do family
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trees and like I learned about like all
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different places I was from um I guess I
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wasn't fully aware of that cuz I assumed
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everyone was like that but I found out
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that there are people who are just one
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race I'm not really sure it was kind of
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the time where I guess my dad would try
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to act a little blacker because of him
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being kind of light you'd be like okay
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you got to watch this thing on slavery
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you got to watch you got to eat you got
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to eat chitlins or something when I was
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younger it was definitely awkward for me
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and it was definitely uncomfortable for
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me people would always ask if I was
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adopted which is a really awkward
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question to be asked when you're a child
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as I got older it kind kind of faded
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away um no I don't feel uncomfortable
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about it it feels pretty cool I mean
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maybe when I'm around different groups
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of people it can get a little awkward
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like when I'm with my Asian family and
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they start speaking
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Vietnamese and I have no idea what
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they're saying there was a level of
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discomfort but um as I've gotten older
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that has gone away and I really don't
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feel uncomfortable anymore it's not that
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big of a deal and people are more
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accepting
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um yes but mainly in a situation where
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no one has any idea that I'm mixed and
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then they get really mad at me for
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saying that I'm mixed like in I remember
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there was this assembly and it was stand
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up like at my old school stand up based
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on um like what racial group you feel
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like you're a part of and okay everyone
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stands up they're like okay Caucasian
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people stand up there's like Hispanic
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people stand there was like Asian people
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stand up and then there was like black
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cuz I stood up too and I just saw some
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of the people that were in the group
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running it and like the teachers and
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everyone looked really mad at me but
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then one of the teachers like oh no yeah
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he's
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mixed but it was it was one of those
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times where it actually really made me
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mad because I'm like you don't know how
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dare you judge me you think I'm joking
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no this is
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true no I love being mixed
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it doesn't I don't really see too much
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of a difference between
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people just started saying that I'm
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black and calling it a
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day D what's the reason my friends black
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definitely
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yeah my mom's side of the family for
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lack of a better word is very
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ghetto put that in there that sounds
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really racist
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um all Asian people are smart that's not
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true some of us are really
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dumb My First Girlfriend Was Mexican
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thenan then didn't speak
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English nobody has any clue that I'm
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mixed at
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all
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[Music]
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nobody blah
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blah nonsense nonsense non blah blah
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blah
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with
