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A whiteness that's only skin deep : Code Switch We use words related to color to describe different racial categories all the time — Black, white, brown. But how much of race and identity actually has to do with the color of your skin? What if what appears to be "whiteness" is only skin deep? Today we're sharing stories from people of color with albinism whose experiences challenge what many people think they know about race.

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A whiteness that's only skin deep

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Kamna Shastri

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A whiteness that's only skin deep

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Destiny O. Birdsong, Meredith Talusan and Torey Alford. NPR hide caption

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Destiny O. Birdsong, Meredith Talusan and Torey Alford.

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We all know race is a social construct, right? We sound like a broken record repeating that over and over and over again. But it's true. And it's meant a lot of different things over the generations.

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Kamna Shastri is a Code Switch mid-career reporting fellow. Megan Farmer/KUOW hide caption

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Megan Farmer/KUOW

Kamna Shastri is a Code Switch mid-career reporting fellow.

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But even as it's evolved and changed, one key component has always been the color of a person's skin - black, brown, white, red, yellow. We keep lumping people together who look all kinds of different ways under limiting labels. So the actual color of our skin becomes a proxy for race, ethnicity, identity. Even today, with a nationwide movement for racial justice, as widespread as discussions of race may be, it's still largely skin deep.

But how much of race and identity actually has to do with the color of your skin? What if what appears to be "whiteness" is only skin deep? Today we're sharing stories from people of color with albinism whose experiences challenge what many people think they know about race. This story was reported by one of our Code Switch mid-career reporting fellows, Kamna Shastri.