…the blacker the berry...
-Wallace Thurman
Let’s take a trip back in time
Before cellphones
Before social media
Before the internet was the standard
Let’s take trip back in time to a period when people actually cared about each other
I say that tongue-in-cheek
I can’t say definitively that people actually cared about each other, but there used to be a time when people actually got together
Nowadays, a quick swipe through social media will give you all the juicy tidbits of someone’s life, but nothing important.
Nothing of substance
Let me stop because this isn’t about that… not today
I think I know where you think I’m going with this,
But I’m not.
I insist.
I digress
There was a time when I hated myself. I still do, from time to time,
But this was a different type of loathing
I hated where I came from
I hated who people expected me to be and who people believed me to be
I hated being the child of immigrants.
I hated being a product of two very different worlds.
Let’s take a trip back in time
Way back before Wakanda
Way before Afrobeats
Way before it was cool to be African
Way before people were so proud to be fifteen percent sub-Saharan African
Way before 23andMe
Let’s take a trip back to a time when I got bullied and made fun of
For speaking nothing but English
My only crime being that I was not born in America
Despite being an innocent child,
I was guilty of not belonging
I was guilty of being an impostor
I was not black enough.
Big deal, right? Everyone gets made fun of.
Perhaps. Maybe you’re right.
Except, it wasn’t fun; it was traumatic.
Except, I had no friends in this strange land,
So it definitely wasn’t fun.
Nowadays, I make fun of my friends, and I even make fun of myself
“Making fun” is making light of something, be it true or exaggerated
It wasn’t fun back then.
I moved to America when I was barely two years old, and I grew up in a very strict, sheltered household.
I didn’t have the opportunity to socialize and meet people.
I didn’t get to make friends, early on.
I mention this because this ridicule I faced…
At the hands of strangers
People my own color…
This condemnation would eventually precipitate a hatred of my own people.
To be continued
