In an autobiographical piece entitled "Brass Ankles Speaks", she discusses the difficulties she faced growing up mixed-race in Louisiana. She recalls the isolation felt as a child, and the sensation of not belonging to or being accepted by either race. She said as a child she was called a "half white nigger" and that while adults were not as vicious with their name-calling, they were also not accepting of her. Both black and white individuals rejected her for being "too white." White coworkers didn't think she was racial enough and black coworkers did not think she was dark enough to work with her own people. She wrote that being multiracial was hard because "the 'yaller niggers,' the 'Brass Ankles' must bear the hatred of their own and the prejudice of the white race" ("Brass Ankles Speaks"). Much of Dunbar-Nelson's writing was rejected because she wrote about the color line, oppression, and themes of racism. Few mainstream publications would publish her writing because it was not marketable. She was able to publish her writing, however, when the themes of racism and oppression were more subtle. Along with other women Harlem Renaissance writers, Dunbar Nelson addressed the injustices faced by black male soldiers. Her one-act play "Mine Eyes Have Seen", written in 1918, deals with the constant threat of lynching hanging over black southern communities, contrasted to the sacrifice black men make as U.S. soldiers. It conveys the message that black soldiers will rightfully demand full citizenship on their return from fighting for the U.S. in war.