HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. KING!!
Why do we have to qualify things to do with us?
I ask this question, ironically on the birthdate of Dr. Martin Luther King...
I love listening to young people, they have the freshest language and are always inventing....
However, a few days ago, at church I was walking the halls and a group of young men passed by,
At the same time a young lady sashayed past,
I knew their necks would swivel in admiration, she was a goddess, stunning...
BUT,
What they said startled me...
'She sure is pretty and fine to be so dark'
Surely, I had heard wrong, but another chimed in,
'Yeah, she fine alright but she too dark.' I was stunned, could not believe that in 2008 young men were,
QUALIFYING...
A young sister's lovliness, based on her skin color,
Not only that but these were young men born in 1991 at the very earliest...
I couldn't even respond,
In talking to one of my girls, she laughed in my face when I expressed my shock...
Telling me I might not know what it was to be QUALIFIED with my brown skin and curly hair...
She hurt my feelings, no one had said that to me in thirty years...
But I listened to her...then she asked me hadn't I ever been QUALIFIED and I realized I had...
For different reasons...
Mostly by folks who would say things like 'Smart for a Black Girl"
My first experience with that was in sixth grade...
For the prior five years I had been cocooned in the warm embrace of a neighborhood Negro school,
Where I was nurtured, valued and cared for...
But once moving over,
I found myself the topic of conversations and a lot of what looked like awe, surprise even a bit of anger...
Didn't mean a thing to me, I was just doing, what I was doing baby...
The first time someone articulated it to me I was in ninth grade,
My English teacher, Mrs. Weaver handed me a stack of Black Literature as I sat in the library...saying...
'Angelia, please read these, you read so well for a Black girl.'
Glancing at them, I handed them back, respectfully, saying..
"I have read all of these, but thank you, and Ms. Weaver I don't mean any disrespect, but I read well, PERIOD.' Her eyes held mine, mine held hers...finally she nodded walking away...
I know she meant no harm and meant for me to feel proud, special or something,
But I knew right then and there, I was not going to allow anyone to QUALIFY me...
Please///
Because when someone has to add a handle to something in that way,
They are in some way trying to diminish what you have and who you are...
When I see that young man again, I plan to tell him that, the young woman is BEAUTIFUL...PERIOD...
Love and Blessings,
angelia
http://www.angeliavmenchan.com/
