I have a lot of acquaintances here. Some of you are friends and some of you are just people I know. Some of you are clients and some are people who I don’t even remember adding. I have “friends” of numerous different backgrounds, ethnicities, walks of life, whatever. I fully embrace this and actually love that I have such a diverse network.
With that being said, I do believe that sometimes this feeling of diversity isn’t reciprocated.
Why? Well, sometimes these people forget that I am indeed a person of color. I’m black all the way. I experience things that black people experience. I listen to “BLACK music”. I watch “BLACK movies”. I have “BLACK hair”. When I walk into a restaurant, I’m a BLACK lady walking into a restaurant. When I go shopping, I’m a BLACK lady shopping. If I say I was discriminated against, believe it. When you post things that diminish my experience, I feel that you don’t appreciate me for who I am. I understand that I am often the only black person in a group with you. Maybe you see one or two more. I feel like I’ve done you a disservice by not making you realize that I am an ordinary black person. I’m not black pretending to be something else.
