I’ve been bathed in honey and kissed by the sun.
I reached across the coffee- colored desk to get a closer look at the man’s face. A face is that was all too similar to me in a sea of white and olive colored shades. I was enamored with the face of Martin Luther King Jr. The purpose of watching this man’s face was to view and place in context the struggles of African-Americans in the 1960s as well as analyze the strength and power that radiated off the orator. My smile grew wider, my cheeks began to ache and my butt more and more away from the metal chair as Dr.King began his “I have a Dream” speech; my happiness was unparalleled until one comment shattered my joy
“Black people are just white people who were too burnt by the sun… Maybe left too long in the oven.”
Even though the comment was not directed towards me, as the only black person in the class, I felt as if the world divided and I stood alone on one side. Silence. I did what I thought I could only do at the moment; I laughed. I laughed because I could not cry. I laughed because somewhere deep inside me, I felt that my skin was indeed “too burnt by the sun.” To my classmates, it seemed like I gave my permission for the comment to be excused. What possibly can be wrong about words when the subject of those words was not offended? But I was offended. Offended …show more content…
She’s my mother so of course she supposed to think that I am beautiful. To the outside world, whose opinions mattered, I was still unbeautiful. Then I heard this quote “let us live for the beauty of our own reality.” These words plagued and bothered because I couldn’t truly understand what they possibly could mean. If beauty was seen through the eyes of others, why should my opinion matter? Finally I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could obtain but something that was already inside of me. Neither the lightening cream nor the thoughts of others could make me
I reached across the coffee- colored desk to get a closer look at the man’s face. A face is that was all too similar to me in a sea of white and olive colored shades. I was enamored with the face of Martin Luther King Jr. The purpose of watching this man’s face was to view and place in context the struggles of African-Americans in the 1960s as well as analyze the strength and power that radiated off the orator. My smile grew wider, my cheeks began to ache and my butt more and more away from the metal chair as Dr.King began his “I have a Dream” speech; my happiness was unparalleled until one comment shattered my joy
“Black people are just white people who were too burnt by the sun… Maybe left too long in the oven.”
Even though the comment was not directed towards me, as the only black person in the class, I felt as if the world divided and I stood alone on one side. Silence. I did what I thought I could only do at the moment; I laughed. I laughed because I could not cry. I laughed because somewhere deep inside me, I felt that my skin was indeed “too burnt by the sun.” To my classmates, it seemed like I gave my permission for the comment to be excused. What possibly can be wrong about words when the subject of those words was not offended? But I was offended. Offended …show more content…
She’s my mother so of course she supposed to think that I am beautiful. To the outside world, whose opinions mattered, I was still unbeautiful. Then I heard this quote “let us live for the beauty of our own reality.” These words plagued and bothered because I couldn’t truly understand what they possibly could mean. If beauty was seen through the eyes of others, why should my opinion matter? Finally I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could obtain but something that was already inside of me. Neither the lightening cream nor the thoughts of others could make me