What I learn from Xavier

What I learn from Xavier

Christina Kleehammer

I remember talking with my friend, Amber, about her son Xavier several years ago. She was stressed, because he kept randomly shrieking during Sunday Mass, and she didn’t know what to do about it. She was concerned that the jarring noise frustrated other people, so I told her, “Amber, if Xavier is being noisy, and we can’t handle it, that’s our bad, not yours.”

American Racism: perspective from a very minor minority

American Racism: perspective from a very minor minority

Christina Kleehammer

Back in elementary school, when we first began learning about America's history of racism, I remember our teacher talking about segregation with its water fountains for white people only, and its water fountains for colored people only. And there I was, the olive-skinned child of a white father, and Filipino mother, trying to find myself in the story along with the rest of my peers. So at one point, I raised my hand and asked, “Which water fountain would I drink from?”