I Look White To Many. I’m Black. This Is What White People Say To Me.Posted in Articles, Autobiography, Media Archive, Passing, United Kingdom on 2021-11-02 01:49Z by Steven |
I Look White To Many. I’m Black. This Is What White People Say To Me.
The Huffington Post
2021-09-10
Cheryl Green Rosario, Guest Writer
I’ve been a fly on the wall when white people didn’t know anyone of color was looking or listening.
I am a Black woman who for most of my life has often been mistaken for white. And I’m here to tell you that for four decades white people have openly, even sometimes proudly, expressed their racism to me, usually with a wink and a smile, all while thinking I’m white too.
The incidents pile up, year after year — at a friend’s wedding, when I met a new roommate, at the grocery store, while riding in a taxi, and during innumerable other events from daily life.
As the nation begins, finally, to focus on the social injustice that takes place across this country — from the South where I grew up to the North where I’ve lived for the past 22 years ― I feel the collective pain. Even as a very fair-skinned Black woman with green eyes and light brown hair, I, too, have experienced racism. But I’ve also been a fly on the wall when white people didn’t know anyone of color was looking or listening…
Read the entire article here.