It’s time to listen. Evansville Living has and always will be a platform to celebrate the good things about our city, but right now the best use of our platform is to amplify the voices that can speak directly to the black experience in our country, city, and community. Over the coming days, we will be giving our platform over to several community members who will share their experiences so that we can learn and grow together. Our role, and what we’re also asking of you, is simply to listen.
I am a biracial 27-year-old man living in Evansville, Indiana, and was born to a white mother and a black father. Growing up, my parents were not together, but over the years of my childhood, I lived alternately with both halves of my family. Even though one side was African American and one side white, I never felt much difference between them.
Attending school in Evansville and Warrick County, both, even though my friends were mostly black, I never felt any discrimination aimed at me from white kids in either place. Maybe it was because I was fairly quiet. The only experience I had with any serious prejudice or felt alienated was a brief time I lived in the state of Georgia with family during a portion of junior high school. It was during that time I felt confronted with race, and I was very glad to come back to Evansville.
In Evansville, I met and married someone who is white but who has a deep interest in African American history and culture, and being with him has made me more aware of my black heritage than I ever learned about in school. We attend events at the Evansville African American Museum, and I have encountered some wonderful people in this city who I would have never met otherwise.
We attended the recent protests in support of George Floyd and racial harmony, and I was very glad they were peaceful. I have two cultures in my genes, and I think I am very lucky to be exactly who I am and live in a place that not only accepts me for who I am but also be married to a government official who is also a supporter of black culture. I think I could not find a better place to live at this time in my life.
Justin Allan Coures lives in Downtown Evansville and is a proud biracial native of this community and a childcare worker at Rising Stars Daycare.
