Marc Quarles is African-American, with a German wife and two biracial children ā a son, 15, and daughter, 13. The family lives in Pacific Grove, a predominantly white, affluent area on California's Monterey Peninsula.
Every summer, Quarles' wife and children go to Germany to visit family. Consequently, Quarles spends the summers alone. And without his family around, he says, he's treated very differently.
Most of the time, "I've noticed my white counterparts almost avoid me. They seem afraid," Quarles tells NPR Special Correspondent Michele Norris. "They don't know what to think of me because I'm in their neighborhood. I oftentimes wonder if they think I'm a thug."
"The same does not happen when I have the security blanket and shield of my children," Quarles says. "When my children are with me, I'm just a dad. I love being a dad."
Those experiences prompted him to share his six words with The Race Card Project: "With kids, I'm Dad; Alone, thug."
[For more of this story go to http://www.npr.org/2014/11/17/...ds-im-dad-alone-thug]
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