ElaineI am a 32, an ostensibly and outwardly "successful" litigation lawyer, a partner in my firm and to the world a "high achiever". Why is then that when I read your stories I started to cry? I thought all these years that I suffered from an inferiority complex, perhaps a persecution complex or just a plain "hang up". I am the daughter of a south Indian father (from India not North American) and an Irish mother. Unlike my brother I was very "fair", although I have jet black hair and brown almost black eyes. My father was and still is a doctor. We lived in white areas and went to white schools. From a very young age I realised I was different and this was very readily reinforced by neighbourhood children and I'm very sorry to say some teachers. Once school and childhood were over the insults were fewer, although I do distinctly remember, as a 22 year old junior lawyer being told by my supervising partner that "my dog has better breeding than you do!". Some of the experiences which I have had are:-a)an assumption that I am less intelligent because of "mixed blood"; b)having to give explanations about my racially ambiguous appearance; c)that "half-breeds (how I hate to even use the word) are inherently untrustworthy; d)that I try to pass myself off as white, the necessary corrollary of which is that I am an infiltrator or a fraud; e)that I have betrayed my Indian heritage by my light skinned appearance; f)that I warrant an explanation when in the company of either racial group; g)that my background can, if the conversation gets dull, be used to get the ball rolling again; h)that my mother must have been a woman of questionable morals to have married my father; i)that my father "got lucky" to get himself a white woman; that it is ok to stare at my family when we appear in public; and finally, that I am something to pity, "the tragic mulatto". Sound familiar? If it does I would very much like to chat with you.