Tuesday, April 1, 2008

I'm an Albino Black Person

Sorry for two in one day, but this is technically from yesterday at the dentist.



So, I have problems with being Caucasian, the first being that my old roommate, Marianne, decided it would be funny to mess with me and make me believe that I didn’t look Caucasian. One night as we’re falling asleep she asks, “So, do you mark the Caucasian box on things?” and I said, “Uh, yeah, why?” and she said, “Because you aren’t Caucasian.” A few weeks later a guy who has never met Marianne asks me in the middle of conversation, “So what ethnicity are you?” I didn’t know how to answer, at first I was wondering who put him up to it, but Marianne honestly had never come into contact with this guy, finally I said, “I’m just white”. So it became kind of a joke for us and since I have a cousin who’s Caucasian-ness is also constantly in question it continues here at home.
Lately the concept of an Albino Black Person has been raised. I think I know what they are talking about, but to be facetious I said, “Isn’t that a white person?”
But other than that, I do get bored sometimes with the idea of being Caucasian, or as we like to call ourselves, white, so I think I will begin to refer to myself as an albino black person.
I find it especially interesting when I’m at the dentist office and am perusing the covers to all the magazines. Not only is my dentist office one of the only dentist offices in the state where you could read the Ensign or Book of Mormon while waiting, or if you so desired grab a pass along card (this is what happens when your dentist becomes a Stake President) but he’s probably the only white male Mormon who subscribes to Ebony magazine. Yes, I have thought that possibly someone else in the office is the subscriber, but his name is on the cover and the staff is all white except for one Latino woman.
Yes, this magazine interested me, and I wanted to pick it up and flip through the pages and read a few articles but I felt as though a middle class white girl isn’t allowed to do that. So I read the cover more than once. One little headline read, “How to be a rich, black woman.” I thought to myself, “I don’t think that article can help me.” Sure, it could help me learn to be a rich woman, but not a black one. Then there was another article, “Black men talk about what gets them to commit.” I didn’t realize that it took different things to get a black man to commit than a white man, but you see I could easily be wrong. The point is, I wanted to read these articles but didn’t feel like I was allowed to because they were very race specific. I think that it’s interesting that if you saw a magazine with headlines such as, “How to be a successful, rich, white woman” or “How to get a white man to commit” those magazine editors would be in a pot of boiling water. But maybe if I were on the other side I would think that those magazines that seem Race-neutral are really just the magazines for white people, maybe we can’t get rich the same way, maybe we don’t have the same type of problems with guys. I don’t know, I claim to know nothing and that’s my safest bet…

6 comments:

Cassie Rakes said...

Oh D, I love your sense of humor, that post cracked me up to the point of a clap of my hands, I don't know if you ever caught on to that but that is very high on the rankings when it come to my laughing, it's right before falling on the floor. in a few less words love the post agree with you totally.

Monique said...

Hi there,

Well I ran across your blog thanks to google and I found your post interesting. I'm a black American woman, and I've heard white people make such comments before. Something along the lines of "Why is okay for black people to talk about being black but not okay for white people to talk about being white?" The reason for that, at least according to my observation and experience, is that caucasians have always been the dominating race in America (and the world in general). Believe it or not, it's actually difficult to be a minority in America. In particular, it's hard to be black in America. Perhaps that's hard for you to imagine, but you'll just have to take my word for it since you can only see the world through your own eyes.
In a nutshell, this difficulty dates back to the days of blacks being slaves in America. Yes this was centuries ago, but the pain, humiliation, fear and anger that slavery caused is still very alive in black America today. You see it in the statistics, that black americans are more likely to be incarcerated, not finish high school, and in the womens' case, be a single mother without the dad in the picture. Because of this, we have to talk about being black. We have to hash out these issues and vent our frustrations in order to move forward. We encourage each other, advise each other, remind each other of the positives of our culture.
Yes there are a lot of things white people and black people have in common...like whether you date a white guy or a black guy, either of them can have commitment issues. But as I said, it's important for minorities to be race-specific when it comes to media. It helps us to establish our identity and helps us to be proud of who we are instead of ashamed.
I hope this all makes sense.

Monique said...

P.S,

I just read my post...I hope I didn't come across as hostile. That's the downside to cyberspace, you can't communicate facial expressions well. :) I was trying to be informative. I know race is a sensetive subject but I always beleived that everyone should be having an open dialogue about it.

Lildonbro said...

Cybria,

I appreciate your comments and I didn't think that you sounded hostile :) I hope that I didn't sound that way in my post. I was just writing about how interesting I thought my dentist appointment was and share the crazy thoughts I have some times.
I can understand and respect the need to be race specific at times. I can understand the need for any minority group to have specific forms of media for them. Some all their own without the majority stuff all over it.
Sorry if none of that is making sense, I've had a very long weekend :) I really did enjoy your comment though.
I'm curious what you were looking up on goggle that led you to my blog though :)

Monique said...

Hello again. lol. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you replied (till five months later??) I have no idea what I looked up on google that day. I have a tendancy to google every thought that pops into my head. :)

Monique said...

I now remember what it was I was looking for, because I just searched for it again and your blog again came up. :p I was looking for that article about become a rich black woman. There. Only took 3/4 of a year to figure that one out. :)

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