I am loving these stories and mine starts kind of recent. I was born in Virginia and moved to North Carolina for college. I wasn't raised in the hood and never lived in the ghetto. I come from a middle class family. My parents were Democrats but when they talked politics they always sounded Conservative. Except when it came to race. We were all excited about Obama. Gonna get a Brother in the WhiteHouse. It was a big deal.
I was told every day of my life that I was gonna get judged cuz I was Black. Cops would harass me cuz I was Black...we all know the drill. But, when I think back I never really ran into racism. My friends have always been diverse. Race was not an issue except during election time. I did get that White thing where they just want to "raise me up because of slavery and Jim Crow and racism". What did they not get about we all growing up in the same neighborhood? All went to the same nice school?
So, my story starts with me talking with my friend Rae about going shopping. Told her I wasn't sure I wanted to go alone because whenever I go without my boyfriend, who is White, people look at me. Like I'm trying to do something. Can't walk into a store without getting noticed.
She said "Girl maybe they looking at you because you're hot". She asked me if I thought every other race walked around with this "everybody judging me cuz of my race" chip? She said she never thought about being Cherokee or looking White.
Never thought about that before. I just bought into the whole identity politics B-line. So I started to check my attitude and an amazing thing happened: I stopped feeling uncomfortable being alone in public. Stopped giving cops grief if I got pulled (I got a baddass car and girl likes to go fast) and guess who got less attitude and fewer tickets.
I walked away because I want to be judged by the "content of my character" and Democrats can't seem to do that. I didn't vote for Trump the first time but MAGA 2020 - 📷😝