The majority (minority) experience...

I sent some tweets out about this new YouTube "movie" called Dear White People which naturally the title caught my eye. Once I began watching the trailer (check it out here) Dear White People my thoughts immediately went from YES to I must share this!

For those that don't know my background I'm a military brat; Born in California but raised in Cleveland. Cleveland city schools are equivalent if not WORSE than Birmingham city schools so of course Gale sent me to schools in the suburbs. The suburbs in Cleveland were still all black but the families were considered middle class so everyone shared the same values, principles, beliefs, and financial status. It's safe to say that I felt "normal" being in suburban Cleveland schools considering everyone was "like me." Once we moved in 3rd grade that's when my life of "dear white people" began. I was always the "token" black friend, white guys liked me but would never admit that to their parents, black people always felt like I was "acting/talking white", they felt like I thought I was superior because the majority of my friends were white, ultimately they thought I wasn't "black enough" to understand why they were upset with me. *side eye* I always had to dispel "black" stereotypes (which wasn't hard because if you've seen me dance you'll understand what I mean), but most importantly I had to remind people (white people) that I was still black. At the end of the day I would face some type of discrimination, some type of racism, from somewhere/someone because I'm black & I'm a woman. Hard for them to believe but it was true. So after my journey of being in all white schools as a child I continued my journey with “what I knew” and attended the University of Alabama.

In the article "Dear White People" Has Me Reflecting on Doing Time At an Ivy League School: Dear White People Reflection I love when Helena states,

"But when I got to college it was either sink or swim. Get black or get back. Thankfully, a floormate from Harlem saved me. Otherwise I'd have been whatever the idiotic reverse of blacklisted is. She made me go to $3 pajama parties at the Pan African house, saving/drowning me in a mosh pit of black bodies pulsating to the xylophone stylings of "Money, Cash Hoes." One semester later I was deemed sufficiently black enough for even the most discerning of palettes. Oh, how grateful I was back then to get a lesson in whose side I was supposed to be on in the racial Red Rover game that's played on campuses around the country. Campuses that like the fictional Manchester University of "Dear White People," don't think they have a "race problem."

This is the University of Alabama; this was my experience. I spent my first two years oblivious to the black community on campus. Aside from being involved in the Spoken Word group I didn't come to campus with a group of people I've known forever, I didn't attend the parties or the events and when I decided to pledge, MY how much of a "culture shock" I experienced. Lol! But it was a solo journey that I thoroughly enjoyed. My black friends who I met my freshmen year were from majority schools like me so they experienced/understood "life as a token."

But how grateful I am to have had the best of both worlds. To be able to interact with all people, in different settings, without feeling like I'm jeopardizing who I am.

I'm just a black woman, with the beaches of Cali flowing through my veins, from the mean, empty streets of Cleveland, with a kaleidoscope of friends who have each taught me so much about myself and the world around me on this journey through life.

I encourage you to check out the trailer for the "movie" and share it with your friends!

Happy Friday!