When I was little, the people around me were telling me that you mustn’t judge people by “the color of their skin” – meaning, by their race.
They instilled in me that judging someone by his race was morally wrong. Mistreating someone on the basis of race was ungodly. These people knew whereof they spoke. They had lived through a period when race was paramount and you had no individuality worth recognizing if you were Black.
I believed their message that I could go out and accomplish anything I set my mind to and that I needn’t feel less than anyone.
I went out into the world and started doing my thing. And lo and behold, I ran into some other people who basically said to me, “Whoa. Wait a minute. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Doing what my parents and teachers and role models told me I could do,” I basically said back. “They said we are all equal and people should have the freedom to choose whichever life they want for themselves.”
“Okay, but you can’t be with one of them,” they said, referring to someone who wasn’t Black. “That’s just not right.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those are the oppressors, don’t you know that? Do you know what those people did to your great-great-grandmother?”
“I’ve heard of such things. But that was a long time ago, and things are different now.”
And so I went on upon my merry way. But that didn’t stop some of these people from trying to get my attention. Sometimes they would give me dirty looks if they saw me with one of these people I wasn’t supposed to be with. Or make insulting little remarks as they passed by me.
Other times they would spit in our path. Or make the gesture of firing a gun as we approached them. If they were across the street, they would sometimes yell curses.
I just couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them for the longest time. But then I realized that their behavior had nothing to do with me. After all, they didn’t know me. Why would they get so bent out of shape about who I, a stranger, wanted to be with?
All that mattered to them was that I was Black. That’s all they saw, and that’s all they cared about. They clearly had certain designs on me.
And there were some things I just wasn’t allowed to do.
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