Preview

My turn

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
868 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My turn
My turn: I like my coffee extra African-American
By Dale Bradby
Eng 101 I've heard people describe my skin color as caramel and my eyes as hazelnut is if I'm some kind of creamer. I claim that I'm 100% African-American, even though I've never known anybody from Africa including my great-grandfather, who was of the Pamonkey native-American tribe. Its common in the black community to hear someone say "I got Indian in me!" and then someone else to smack their lips and respond "Nigga you blacker than black!" or something to that effect. So, as a light-skinned-bright-eyed-African-American with an Indian last name and a first name common to Caucasians, I was VERY confused. I didn't know if I should wear feathers and sleep with dream-catchers, sag my jeans below my waist while pumping my fist, or enunciate clearly and wear open-toed sandals. I joke about it now but this distortion in identity caused me to loathe everybody from Adam to my father. I often questioned: why were my white ancestors so evil, why were my black ancestors so dumb, and why don't the long haired Bradbys associate with the frizzy haired Bradbys? My skin became a curse to me, and like those sugar coated coffee creamers, I began to cover the richness of my heritage with blissful ignorance. I decided the history of the Bradbys was too bitter to shallow and shunned everyone outside my immediate family. Therefore, the only flavor of existence I couldn't drown out was my slave heritage. My family recognized black history month, attended a "Nation of Islam" mosque, a "holy ghost catching" church, and wore the wool-like mane unique to "black folk". It was obvious I was black, however, I was never called such. I have "black", but not of the main stream tribe that was "in-style". I was a "high yellow heifer", a "malodo", and a "house nigga". Its hurtful when your own people put you in a outcast category that very few are apart of. I felt like some kind of mutant, so i would often sit outside on

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Black Girl Stereotypes

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Then in sixth grade, I moved to Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk has a large African-American community and I was excited to have friends that looked like me. However, when I was around the black kids in my school I never felt like I belonged. They didn’t do activities I enjoyed and I often times didn’t know the celebrity they talked about. We had completely different personalities. After multiple instances of being called white-washed or an ‘oreo,’ I tried to force myself to fully embody the stereotype of a black girl at my school to find friends.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Race and Ethenticity

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Country Lovers is a very engaging story because of the seriousness and the scandalous nature of the topic. Because of the intensity and sense of racial prejudice during the early 1900s, a prohibited romance—a mix of races romance is considered social taboo that is not allowed. To even think about writing a literature that centre on this topic is truly fascinating and attention-grabbing to…

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As she entered the local supermarket, everyone’s actions came to a standstill. They all watched her as she walked down the aisle minding her own business. Their eyes pierced into her dark flesh, discovering the humility that the woman felt as they watched every single one of her moves. The humiliation that she experienced caused her to question how one’s mind could be so immoral to the point where they discriminate people from society because of their skin color. She perpetually wondered what it would be like to be born a different skin color. It was challenging for the young woman to be a part of society without feeling discriminated by others. She longed for the time where color would not create a rift in society and instead would unite people…

    • 1551 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sociology: Black Like Me

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages

    One argument made by Structural Functionalists is that society should be a meritocracy. People should be rewarded based on their abilities. (Class notes, SOCI 201, Winter 2010)…

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever been forced to change your personality while you are around a certain group of people? Growing up I questioned the every detail about my life and my race. I did not know who or what I was. Being an African American girl in America everyone expected me to be illiterate and ghetto. Ghetto is a term used describe someone who is loud and obnoxious. Whenever I spoke my friends would stop me. They said that I was acting white and that I spoke that way. They told me to come back to acting black. There was not a day that went by that I was not called an oreo. An oreo is an African American who is black on the outside but white on the inside. Why was my intelligence defined by a stereotype? Every time I did something that normal African…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Biracial Identity

    • 3026 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Tatum D. The Complexity of Identity: “Who am I?” Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race. New York: Basis Books, 2003:18–28.…

    • 3026 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, I have come to the understanding that being part of a subordinate culture specifically an African one, I have had to deal with a great deal of prejudice and discrimination based on my skin color. Most of my knowledge of my race has come through the focus of black history during the month of February. I remember watching a movie called To Kill a Mockingbird in high school, this movie sheds some light on the position and struggles blacks have had and still face in society, with respects to discrimination. Growing up, my parents were not very vocal about the topic of race in general, noting that, I was always told by my parents and in church, not to use hateful speech, and to treat everyone equally, as we all belong to one human…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All the time I get asked, “What are you?” To quickly get it over with I always “round” my ethnicities. I simply say “ I’m half Chinese and half white,” but I am so much more. I am 44% Chinese, 4% Pacific Islander, 2% Central Asian, 12.5% Norwegian, 12.5% German, 12.5% Swedish, 6.25% Irish, and 6.25% Swiss German; I am proud to be all of those. However, because of my mixed background, I do not look the part of either side of my family. My siblings and I stand out because my parents have the only mixed family out of their brothers and sisters, but I still can and choose to identify with both sides.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Matriculating from a child into a young lady, the color of my skin often times influenced how I felt about myself and who I could be as an individual in society. As I sat in the front of the class at a predominately white school or walked down the hallways, I anticipated the moment that I would yet again be called another racial name- sometimes from those who looked similar to me but did not understand the essence of their doings. Reaching my final year in middle school, I began to define myself in a way that encompassed the names I was called. Instead of describing myself as the intellect I was or by my astounding level of accomplishments, I defined myself as someone who must be unfortunate to be African-American. Witnessing very few African-American women being presented in a positive manner in the news, learning my entire history and heritage in a single textbook chapter, and hearing demeaning words merely because of my dark skin tone inhibited me from seeing what roles I was capable of having in society. I often times asked…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Popular phrases such as, “the Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the juice,” and “If it’s White, it’s gotta be right,” have held opposing views in the African American community on the concept of skin complexion. This idea of a “Color Complex” has psychologically altered the way many African Americans perceive beauty, success, and their personal identity. Although some would disagree, there seems to be a strong connection between skin color and social status in the African American community. It may appear that African Americans are dispelling this theory of “light-skinned and dark skinned” to become a more cohesive group, but the politics of skin color and features still remain. Skin color variations among African Americans play a major role in how they perceive beauty standards, social status and themselves.…

    • 3571 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Turn

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Read the first seven paragraphs of “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” carefully. Then write a well-organized essay that explains how Mitford uses features of style and rhetoric to convey her attitude toward her subject.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One of Beverly Tatum’s major topics of discussion is racial identity. Racial identity is the meaning each of us has constructed or is constructing about what it means to be a white person or a person of color in a race-conscious society. (Tatum, pp Xvii) She talks about how many parents hesitate to talk to their children about racism because of embarrassment and the awkwardness of the subject. I agree with her when she says that parents don’t want to talk about racism when they don’t see a problem. They don’t want to create fear or racism where none may exist. It is touchy subject because if not gone about right, you can perhaps steer someone the wrong way. Another theory she has on racial identity is that other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves. (tatum pp18) “The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflects back to us.” (Tatum pp21) What she means by this is that what other people tell us we are like is what we believe. If you are told you are stupid enough you might start to question your intelligence. When people are searching for their identity normally the questions “who am I now?” “Who was I before?” and “who will I become” are the first that come to mind. When a person starts to answer these questions their answers will influence their beliefs, type of work, where they may live, partners, as well as morals. She also mentions an experiment where she asked her students to describe themselves in sixty seconds. Most used descriptive words…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, your identity depends on yourself, not others. Although it is obvious that some important parts of your identity such as your name, your race, and your appearance are given by your parents, you could still change your identity and others’ views on you by changing the personality of yourself or getting familiarized by others. Take the story of Rose Park for an example. Back to the 1950s, as a minority group, African-Americans did not have many…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ethno Cultural Paper

    • 549 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I can remember riding in the car on my home from school as a little girl and listening to the lyrics of the song titled Black Butterfly by Deniece Williams and wondering to myself “ Is she talking about me?!” Much of my ethno-cultural heritage is tied up in the fact that I was born in the south as a l black girl and am part of a family that had an active pioneer in the civil rights movement in our mist. I have been raised to always believe that I was just as smart as, just as pretty as, and just as capable as any white child I might be in class with and it was my duty to the world to show that fact.…

    • 549 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Token Kid

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In school social circles, I always find myself becoming “The Token Black kid." Most people just naturally assume by the tan skin and curly hair that I must be half black. They mistakenly assume that many of the accomplishments I have made are due to the fact that I am mixed. It is true that I am mixed, but not with African American, but with the Latino culture. My mother was born in the Dominican Republic, and my dad is a Yankee from Columbus, Ohio. Repeatedly, I have written this off as a mistake given that a number of people are not able to find the Dominican Republic on a map, and are not familiar with the Latino culture encompassing more than just Mexico.…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays