Tábata Cláudia Amaral de Pontes

How do others define your race?

People assume that I am White. In Brazil, race is very much correlated with income. People who are White tend to be richer and people who are Black or Indigenous tend to be poorer. I cannot trace back my ancestry completely, but I know that I am White, Afro-Brazilian, and Indigenous Brazilian. But, people conclude that I am a very wealthy person, a White person, who has had many privileges and that is why I am at Harvard. This frustrates me very much because people disregard my descent from other races because of what I look like.​