"I don't know how you manage to do it, Denise," Alisson, one of my colleagues, told me. "No matter how hard I try to teach these kids, they just don't seem to listen to me."

"Well, I guess I just know how to make class seem more interesting," I responded.

"You know, I bet if I were as pretty as you, I would probably be able to get them to pay attention to me. I mean you're really pretty for a black woman."

I froze at her comment. I felt a wave of anger wash over me, but I bit my tongue the best I could and said, "Thank you."

She had the nerve to smile in my as if she did nothing wrong. "You know what? Now that I think about it, you look like you have something else in you. What are you?"

"I-I'm half Japanese."

"You have Asian in you to? Wow, no wonder you're so smart and so pretty. I mean, I'm not trying to sound racist or anything, but you seem to look better than all of these other black female teachers. To me, I can't really find any black women at this place who look as good as you do."

Again, I stopped myself from telling her off since we were at work and simply nodded my head.

"Well, I gotta go. See you tomorrow." Alisson was getting ready to walk away, but then she turned around and added, "Oh, I mean sayonara." She bowed and waved before walking away.

I glared at her as she walked away until she made a right to the end of the hallway. Even though, I have to live with that kind of ignorance from some of my co-workers, it seems as if Alisson is the ringleader amongst the group of bigots, 

Last week, she invited me to lunch. You wanna know what that said to me?

"Do you want to go to Mom's Soul Food across the street? I heard they have the best fried chicken! I'm sure you'll love it!"

It took every ounce of strength in me to not slap her where she stood. I went home and told Choi, my fiancé about it. 

"I still don't know why you haven't reported her yet," he told me later that night. "That kind of stuff should not be tolerated in any place in any form."

Well, this is Harvard. There are very few minorities here, so we're basically the targets for racial comments.

I met a student of mine named Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence

last year, who's half Japanese like me. She started a movement called I, Too, am Harvard. I couldn't have been more proud of her. She and other minority students have faced bigotry here at Harvard. I saw the play last year, and I couldn't have been more moved. If only there was something like that for the teachers here because I've had just about enough of being treated like this! 

When I made my way outside of the building, the most unexpected thing happened to me. This Eurasian woman came up to me and greeted me.

"Hello," she said. "Are you Denise Kobayashi?"

"Yes, I am," I replied. "How can I help you?"

"I'm Kira. This may seem weird, but I think you and I could possibly be sisters."

I just stood their with my mouth ajar. Kira looks nothing like me, so how can this be possible? "What? But you're white, and I'm black. Well, I'm actually half black and half Japanese."

"I'm half Japanese, too, Denise. I believe we could have the same father."

"W-what? Wait a second." I sat down on the brick fence and placed my briefcase next to me. I covered my eyes with my hads and rubbed my cheeks. When I opened my eyes, Kira was sitting next to me. I turned to face her. "So you're saying my father was with your mother at some point?! What did your mother tell you?"

"My mom told me he left for your mom, and they already had you," Kira answered.

"Are you trying to day my father is a rolling stone?"

"Our father, and no, Denise, I'm not. I'm pretty shaken up about this, too. I'm just telling you what my mom said."

I sighed and let out a mirthless chuckle. "I just left a meeting, got racially profiled, and now I have a half sister. What a day."

"I think we should talk to our parents. They might be hiding something from us."

"Yeah, we should." My phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked at the screen to see it was a text from Choi that read:

When r you coming home? It's late. Don't keep me waiting. ;)

I chucled. "Well, I've got ot get home. See you around, Kira, I guess."

"Bye, Denise."

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So finally concludes this chapter. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. ☺