In Queens, there were so many people from the West Indies, that mostly socialized with blacks and Latinos.

So Indians from India were East Indians, where people from West Indies were West Indians.

For your own mental health, assume that most people have good intentions.

If you notice eyes on you and your significant other as you walk down the street, don’t automatically assume it’s because the passersby disapprove of your interracial union.

“East Indian” was a phrase I heard all the time growing up.

When I was younger I was like, what is East Indian?

On the fundraising page, she says they cut her off because they don't approve of her dating her boyfriend, who is black. She has received some college tuition money through financial aid, grants, loans and work-study, but she needed at least ,000 to cover her first year of tuition. As of Friday morning, she'd collected more than ,000.

My family had just finished lugging plastic bins of backup paper towels, picture frames with faces I would replace and an extra fluffy mattress pad. I held my breath and shook my head, saying nothing.

I was saying goodbye to my mom and dad as I watched them raise their eyebrows at the mob of diverse freshman unloading their college supplies. Knowing the dynamics of the word “home” were about to change, I let a nervous giggle escape without unleashing my usual well-meaning but uniformed 18-year-old ideas about racial injustice.

The second was about sex — no boys allowed in my bedroom. The only boys that ever saw where I slept were glossy ones I duct-taped to my bedroom walls from magazine cutouts. So did a third (and final) parental limitation on dating.

It was freshman move-in day at my large urban university in North Philadelphia.