growing up in new york, it was common for me to be mistaken for puerto rican...
(1985)
when i moved to colorado, suddenly I became mexican...mexicans walk up to me speaking spanish like i'm supposed to understand...since 2001 i've noticed a new trend...it has now grown into a life of it's own...
(2001)
people are starting to assume that i'm of arabic/middle eastern descent...just this week i've been asked if i'm:
a moroccan
(1990)
a saudi
(2003)
a turk
(3 days ago)
and they don't even attempt to be polite about it...no introduction, nothing...okay, the beard isn't helpful...but i want to slap these people upside the head with a big can of nonyodamnbusiness...instead i like to pretend that i'm civilized...
i tell them my father was black and my mother was indian...if i'm feeling good that day, i'll say...
my father was a descendant of west african slaves...my mother came from southern indians...i am 4th or 5th generation american and my people were here before it was called the new world...
what's wrong with you people?...where is your common decency?
it doesn't bother me that i get labeled these other races...what offends me is that these people feel they have the right to ask me...that i have to defend my racial heritage...and reduce my family to such simplistic terms...
the only thing these folks have earned is the right to go fuck themselves...
this is the kind of shit that makes a brotha walk around angry...
why do i suddenly feel self obsessed...
(2002)
