Let's Play a Game

Day One

Let's play a game
You know the one where you try to guess what I am.
The one game, where you try to figure out what my ancestry is and why my ethnicity matters so much to you.

Let's play a game
The one where you try to identify why kinky, curly hair, full lips, eyes the color of the blue, blue ocean, a long, lean, straight nose and olive/yellow skin make up the woman I am.

Let's play a game
The game, where looking at me with a confused look on your face and tilt to your head will help you figure out what color my father is and what color my mother must be for me to be the color I am standing before you.

Let's play a game
A game where my mother's carmel skin and slave heiratage matters more to you than the degrees I have hanging on my wall. You know that game, the one where you discredit my ability based on that "one drop rule."

Let's play a game
Oh, I like this game. The game where you try to figure out why I look "lilly white," speak "so well," am "so educated" but yet I still don't seem to fit the mold of white America.

Let's play a game
The one where I start to cover my hair, as to not be an object of desire; like my great, great, great grandmother was to her slave owner, I now get questioned on my faith.
The game where you wonder how a "white" woman would cover her hair. Does my lovely scarf make the game harder? Now you have to figure out if I am Muslim too! Damn! Is it getting too scary for you?

Let's play a game
The game where you figure out that my skin color, my hair being covered, my eyes being blue, my mother being black, my father being white, have NOTHING to do with YOU.
That is a game I am will and ready to play, how about you?

Be kinder today than yesterday.