It's an interesting question for sure. I'll try to keep this brief, but it likely won't be. I'm mixed (Black dad, white mom, adopted and raised by my Black uncle and aunt). I am very white presenting. I have pale skin, blue eyes and auburn hair. I straddle 2 worlds.

One the one hand, I enjoy all the privileges of a white woman. growing up, I enjoyed the privileges of a white child. The kicker was those privileges can and were snatched from me upon my ethnicity being discovered.

I've been fortunate enough not to have to worry about my boys going out at night. I never have to worry about being pulled over for no reason. My siblings, all with more melanin than I have, do.

In that sense, I don't know I would trade places.

But then, in my case, there's a huge amount of guilt and disconnect. It sounds silly, but I have guilt for my accident of genetics making my life easier. I feel guilt for not having had the same struggles. I've experienced racism, but never the same way. Society treats me just fine. Individual people may not. There's a disconnect in a way that I can never quite climb over. Oddly enough, not a single person on the Black side of my family has an issue with it. It's me that has the guilt.

It's strange, I have the best of both worlds, I can walk around undetected like a white woman, but I have all this rich culture and heritage to draw on. Would I trade places with one of my darker siblings? Some days yes, some days no. But I think mostly no. I'm the POC you never see coming. I'm the POC that makes racists look really stupid out in public. Maybe that's why it all shook out the way it did.