The Lines We Cross

If you are of color but could pass for white, would you do it? All of my sisters have really light skin, and my skin is dark. If you saw us, you wouldn’t think that we were sisters. They often teased the fact that I was black and their skin wasn’t. Oh the names they had for me were so cruel. Growing up I could not understand why things came easier to them than it did for me. Strangers treated them friendlier and seemed warmer to them. Even males gravitated to them more. It was really frustrating and I soon grew resentment for my skin color. One day, a distant family member was giving my sister a piggy-back ride and when I asked for one, he said I was too black. That stood with me for a long time.

In her essay, “Racialization, ‘Flexible Ethnicity, ‘Gender, and Third-Generation Mexican American Identity”, Jessica Vasquez describe how some people use “flexible ethnicity”, to dodge the burdens of inequality or how some are automatically racialized and treated differently because they look white. Although I already figured out why my sister were treated better, this reading really struck a chord and 

reminded me of the unfairness I experienced because I was obviously black.

It’s sad to see that certain ideologies of white being better is still very much prevalent in our society and run deep within our minds. And we respond to it without even knowing that we are doing it.

So, if I could have passed for white, would I? If you had asked me that when I was younger, I would have said yes. But now that I am older, I wouldn’t because I know that even though my sister’s have gorgeous light skin, I have a better body.