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The thing about being black and having a different accent, in the beginning, is that it makes you foreign.

Every black American is bilingual. All of them. We speak street vernacular and we speak 'job interview.'

More often than not, we think of ourselves as black, white, Asian, or Hispanic pretty much in this country, but the real America is much more than that.

I find myself frequently introducing myself to someone, saying that, you know, I've grown up black and biracial in the United States.

Asian-Americans are still regarded as 'other' by many of their fellow-citizens.

My mixed-race background made me a broad person, able to relate to different cultures. But any woman of colour, even a mixed colour, is seen as black in America. So that's how I regard myself.

I get tired of hearing people, well-meaning people, talking about African-American kids or Hispanic kids as if they're all the same. Which isn't true. There is a very diverse group of people in both groups in terms of income, objectives in life, aspirations, cultural wants, habits, all the things that make us unique Americans.

Anyone who watches a lot of television, or listens to pop music, is familiar with a certain vision of America. If not exactly colorblind, this America is one in which different races easily interact, in which a white person might have an Asian boss, Hispanic stepson, or African-American frenemy.

I'm completely Americanized - I have an American accent, an American wife - but a residue of me is foreign.

I'm writing in English; I'm writing for a Western audience, but the people I'm surrounded by in my daily life are mostly non-white.