If I had a dime for every non-black person who asked "Can I feel your hair?" Sallie Mae would be non-existent in my life. One hs classmate couldn't grasp the concept of a relaxer, so I snipped out a tiny piece of my hair (back then, I didn't care) to show her how my root was curly and the rest of it was straight. 4 other girls leaned in and all of them went "Ooooooh..." at the same time. If we weren't whispering in the middle of class, I would've cracked up. It was like the aliens in awe of Buzz Lightyear.
Ironically, that class was Af-Am Lit. I had almost signed up for Irish Poetry (I was really interested in it) and when I asked my cousin which one I should take she said "Um, isn't that obvious?" I said "So black people can only take African-American Lit?" and she said "Well, duh."
