via Black Girl Dangerous:
You are twelve years old when you start wanting skin-lightening cream. Even your yellow-brown mestiza skin feels too dark in this white bread town your parents moved you to.
“Oh-lah,” white people greet you with, thinking that butchered Spanish is the answer to their question of whether or not you speak English.
“Are you Chinese or Japanese?” your classmates ask. “Crazy Jap,” one boy spits at you after you tell him why you’re a feminist.
“What are you?” ask the more “considerate” white people. If your Filipina-ness is ever exposed, you quickly tack on the non sequitur, “That means I probably have a lot of Spanish blood.” (You don’t.)
Your best friend teases you about having a “broad” nose and “thick” lips, but you still have accidental dreams about kissing her. Only the latter makes you want to avoid her.
by Jennifer Duque. Read the whole piece at Black Girl Dangerous.
