How To Be Black

In response to “How black are you?”

I was in the cafeteria eating lunch with my regular lunch friends (2 white women, Mina and Sheri, and a white man named Don). We’ve known each other socially for several years. As we were eating a friend of mine named “Sarah” (white woman) walked up and said “Hello, How’s it going? Can’t stay to chat since I have a meeting to run to. Let’s talk later.” Sarah left the cafeteria. Mary casually comments “Wow. Sarah has a really deep tan this summer. She must stay outdoors an awful lot.”

I said, “It looks really good with her hair. She looks a lot healthier after all the problems she’s gone through in the past few years.”

Sheri looks up from her meal and says venomously, “She’s too dark. She looks just like a nigger.” I was stunned and for some weird reason said sarcastically “Well, thank you.” Everyone else at the table was also stunned and hardly breathing. Sharon then rememberd she was sitting with a black woman and started lamely stammering, “I mean,uh, well I didn’t, mean to say that like that, ummm. I forgot you were black.”

February 16 - Do people consider you an “exception” to your race as in “you’re different?”

Throughout Black History Month (and beyond), we’ll be focusing on questions of identity. For day sixteen we want to know: Do people consider you an “exception” to your race as in “you’re different?”

Submit your story (videos are encouraged!)

Here’s how:

• Pick a question to answer from this list or make your own
• Click here or the “Submit” button on the top of the page
• Choose how you’d like to submit. We appreciate video submissions (upload to Vimeo/Youtube then embed) but you can submit in other formats.
• Indicate the question you’re answering in the title or post section! This will help us a ton when organizing the submissions.