All day I have seen comments on Ferguson asking why are they making this about race. I had to reflect on this and here is what I will share: I never brought race into any situation. It was always others who pointed it out to me, often in a shaming and demeaning way. Hey, Nigger (Kindergarten greeting from a classmate); Youre pretty for a black girl. (white female coworker at my first job at McDonalds at age 14); What is your nationality. (K-the present); Hey, Denise. (the only other black lawyers name at the law firm. Thought I had made it but felt pretty invisible the day a partner called me the only other black associates name). Then, at some point, I decided to embrace this race label others kept using to identify me and dare I say, I became comfortable with myself. My entire, biracial self. Now, at 40, when I have my own experience and identify with a situation from the perspective of a woman of color after your countless reminders about my skin, my experiences are invalidated with statements like: Bolejack Claims She Was Targeted Because of Race (front page of the Indianapolis Star that has cost me jobs for 10 years although nowhere in the article do you see this quote from me; I admitted to wondering about the role of race after the REPORTER injected the issue and asked me. I regretted saying it then. I dont now.); I dont see race. You are part of the Human Race. (FB today and always when I suggest race is an issue in society); Why are you bringing race into it? To deny my race is to deny me. It is to deny my existence, my experience, to make me invisible. I WANT you to see me, for all that I am and I am a woman of color who is black, white, Cherokee and my experience in this society is that of a BLACK woman. DEAL with it. I will talk about race for the rest of my days and it doesnt make me negative, a race baiter, a racist, an excuse maker. It makes me phenomenally me--the black woman my white mother raised me to BE. #getoffthecouch #fergusondecision
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:29:32 +0000
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