To put it simply, I am a white, teenage, American girl from just outside Chicago, living in Wisconsin, and attending UW-Madison. There is no getting around the color of my skin being a major aspect of the opportunities life has given not just me, but the entirety of my family—who have all been white. I consider my background European, although I have never looked deep within my ancestry past the point of knowing I am at least one-quarter Danish and partly Irish. My being white, Caucasian, whatever one wants to call it, has placed me within the circle of the “majority” of American society. Prior to classes that require me to contemplate questions of race and ethnicity, which began in an English class in high school, I have never needed to develop…