I am often perceived as racially prejudiced because I am white. I work in an industry where most people are people of color. My coworkers joke that they are glad I'm part of the team, keeping it integrated.

If I am expected to hold certain opinions about an ethnic group of another color, just because I am white and if I am perceived by yet another ethnic group in a certain way because I do not speak Spanish (though I speak 6 other languages), then there is bias by what's seen and by what's heard. Both auditory and visual cues are important. Even a particular accent may lead a listener to assume that someone is mentally slow (southern accent) or sexist (texan accent) or really good at growing things (japanese accent).

For a long time I was ashamed and embarrassed at being sourced by my own cultural matrix, loving Mozart and Bach, reading history and science fiction voraciously, in love with words and music. My mother's family is originally from North Carolina (1764) and New England, and my cultural heritage is European-based. My father's ancestors were from Sweden (does that make me a beserker viking brunhilde?) It took a long time to be proud and say that my heritage is as valid as anyone else's--suffering and slavery don't confer "points" in some kind of triage of cultural validity. We all contribute to the tapestry of life.