Cartoon by Ella Sams.
By MAKAYLA RICHARDS – Broadcasting Manager
“It’s a white man’s world.”
My father instilled this idea in my mind years ago. I didn’t want to believe him, but when I stepped into kindergarten at Athens Christian School, I realized
I was wrong.
My teacher explained to us that we would be drawing portraits of ourselves. She went on to say “The color of everyone’s skin in this room is apricot, so use the apricot crayon…” she paused, and glanced at me. She then went on to finish her sentence, “Except Makayla, you can use the brown one. ” It registered in my mind that she was pointing out that my race wasn’t widely represented at Athens Christian. I know that that is a lot of marginalization from a crayon. But, she made sure I knew, that I was darker than tan.
This sort of discrimination continues even in what should be everyday activities. Even shopping is a hassle when you’re black. You can walk in the store with your Sunday best on, but the manager will still send their spies, otherwise known as employees, to do some “checking up”.
“Can I help you?”
“Do you want me to help you with that?”
“I can get you another size?”
The clerk will the proceed to bother me repeatedly, speaking so loud, that it feels as if she was calling for back up. Then the other customers of pale complexion will stare and move away from me. I am not a thief, but the store clerk wasn’t looking at the balance on my card, she wasn’t examining my wallet. All she saw was that, I was darker than tan.
Even making caucasian friends is hard. When I meet them for the first time I have to prove to them that I am not “ghetto”. I have to prove that I speak the white man’s English, that I listen to the white man’s music and that I know little to nothing about the image I am originally paired with. The truth is I do speak a little “hood” I say “I’ma need you to stop with all that play play.” And sayings like,“Shawty you really ain’t nun,” and I use “basically” in front of everything. But that doesn’t mean I’m illiterate. I don’t like most rap and I don’t know anything about BET, but I do know that I can twerk.
Black girls created twerking, so automatically it’s wrong, right? The dance recieved a lot of negative publicity. After that, Latinas caught on to the trend. It still, however, had many opposing views. But when a white girl finally made a twerk video all the comments were,
“OMG GO WHITE GIRL.”
“OOOO SHE CAN DANCE.”
“TURN UP.”
When any other race posted a twerking video the comments were along the lines of,
“WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER.”
“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT ON CAMERA.”
“IS THIS WHAT THE WORLD HAS COME TO?”
In society’s watchful eyes the “black way” is perceived as a cynical way of life.
An African-American knows if you say you engage in “black” culture you can potentially damage friendship with a white person. When I was in 5th grade, I had a Mp3 player and one of my white friends was listening to my music, all rap. She looked at me and said, “Why do you listen to this?” I told her that I liked it. The next day I noticed that she had distanced herself from me. When I asked her why, she told me that her parents said only “useless n*ggers” listen to rap. Her parents said that I wouldn’t make a good friend, and she couldn’t hang out with me anymore. I burst into tears. I wasn’t useless. I wasn’t a n*gger. This type of prejudice is alive and strong in our culture and way of life. African-American culture will never be considered acceptable.
Why is it that everything my race does is wrong? I have always been aware of it, but never addressed it. I thought if I ever said a word my tongue would be cut off by the white is right policy. It’s like it only becomes right when done by white people. Rap and R&B music is commonly referred to as music for black kids. It’s all about money, sex, and drugs. I own up to that, but you can’t tell me that Rock and Hipster music does not reference some of the same themes. In “white” music you hear lyrics like “I got a body full of liquor and a cocaine kicker” – Gorrilla by Bruno Mars , and “S is for the simple need. E is for the ecstasy. X is just to mark the spot,” – S.E.X. by Nickelback. It doesn’t matter how many people say it, “black” music is wrong, and white music is right.
The words “The white privilege” provoke my thoughts with great frustration and hearing people deny makes me emotional. Those words make me realize I have less value, because of my skin tone. When whites reply me by saying “Oh, it’s the 21st century we don’t do that anymore.” I tell them to shut up, because they understand. As African-Americans we deal with racism on a daily basis. If caucasians were to deal with such a bias, they’d be outraged. They’d be at the courthouse fighting for racism, and you know what they’d probably win the case too. We live in society where if you want to be successful, then it’s all about who you know. The white man helps the white man.
All this bothers me, but I don’t think it will change anytime soon. Fears like this should be non-existent. It’s just all these things that we African-Americans laugh about, but it’s not funny. It is wrong. The 13th amendment was signed into law on January 31, 1865. I am a person. And the 14th amendment says I am a citizen. Stop treating me like the mistake that was never erased. Until that day comes, I will be followed, forced to assimilate and told that I am wrong. All because I, Makayla Danielle Richards am, and always will be, darker than tan.
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