Perception, perception, perception...
I was raised to speak with correct diction, subject-verb agreement, correct enunciation, etc. etc. You get my drift. I was also raised to 'deal' with people on all levels. I am 100% black female who loves every melanin drop of my heritage.
I say all of this to give you background on what I'm consistently faced with from my family and strangers on the street. My cousins and I spent our early childhood years together. I moved from Cleveland when I was 8. They consistently make stupid comments like "you sound like a white girl when you answer the phone" or " dayum, we must seem ghetto to you". Now, I love my people to death in all of their glory; yet, they perceive from my outward appearance (i.e. my diction, clothes I wear, etc.) that I personify "white folk". From strangers on the street (I live in DC), I am constantly asked "You don't sound or look like you're from here. Where you from?" "Are you mixed, what island you from?" I tell you it drives me nuts! "When I breathe in deeply and state that I'm black and no I ain't mixed with nothin'! They look at me as if I'm lying!
So my point (long-time coming I know), is that from my experience-people's perception of you may be 360 degrees different than what is the authentic you. Furthermore, I refute the claim that talking "white" (WTF is that anyway) and dressing a certain way definitely does not make one 'an uncle Tom'. It's simply in the ATTI-TUUUDE and within the make-up of a person's character that makes them an Uncle Tom. Clarence T knows what I'm talkin bout.
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"Unless you know the road you've come down, you cannot know where you are going"
~Temme proverb, Sierre Leone~
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