I'm about to go there. Yes, I know this is another taboo subject, but let's keep it real okay? I've been told by friends and family for many years that I sound like a "white girl". When I was young I wasn't quite certain that I knew exactly what that meant. I just knew I didn't sound like my family members or friends. I sounded different in some way. I grew up in the South. However, I grew up in a city that was quite diverse in the South and there was a large mixture of all nationalities. My accent was not really Southern, nor was my accent predominantly "African-American" per se. It was actually a "mixture" so to speak. A girlfriend of mine once said I sounded like I was from California. She was from Cali herself and I thought it was kinda neat since I've always wanted to live there. However, I couldn't help but wonder why should I have to sound and speak a certain way?
What's the big deal if I do sound Caucasian? Does that mean I'm a traitor to my own race simply because I don't sound "Black"? What is sounding "Black" anyway? One could say a number of things such as the use of an expanded ebonic vocabulary. My lack of the use of slang makes me sound less ethnic apparently. But it's actually a bit more than that. It's a sassiness and attitude that I also lack when I express myself. I'm a bit more reticent and quiet in nature and I express myself in brief sentences more so than extended dialogue. However, many Black women have a confident air about themselves in every way including the way they speak and how they sound when they speak.
I know that I'm not typical in any way, shape, or form. That's why this blog was created. I go against the order of what is the norm in this stereotypical narrow-minded realm of who and what I am supposed to be. Therefore, when someone tells me I sound White, I can only reply by saying "Are Black women only supposed to sound a certain way?"
The reverse goes for White people "Acting Black" Yes, sometimes this gesture bugs us and sometimes this very gesture is what turns us on (myself in particular), but I still criticize the same people who call me out for "Talking White" to be little more open-minded when they choose to criticize others for "Acting Black". I may get some haters for saying this, but I'll be very honest. I actually appreciate and like White people who embrace African-American culture. I love it when men appreciate and love Black women and I love when the Hip Hop community is embraced more by other cultures than actual Black people. Some Black people feel that something is being taken away from us, and I don't understand that concept since no one owns anything. Everything is owned by a Higher Power anyway and we are just little minions on earth enjoying what resources have been gifted to us.
We can take on the Higher Power conversation later, but I hope you see my point. I don't want to be confined in a tiny little box that will never allow me to spread my wings and expand to new realms and journeys here on planet Earth. I don't want to be seen as narrow-minded and one-dimensional. I wasn't born that way and neither is anyone else. No one is destined to be a specific way simply because of what color their skin is. That is the beauty of why we are all here in the first place. To live abundant lives that overflows in ways that you cannot even possibly imagine. Food for thought.
