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Mixed Girls and Mamas

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Submitted By mareimbri02
Words 2656
Pages 11
"Mixed Girls and Mama's": A Personal Journey

"..she raised me to never ever forget I was on parole, which means no black hoodies in wrong neighborhoods, no jogging at night, hands in plain sight at all times in public, no intimate relationships with white women, never driving over the speed limit or doing those rolling stops at stop signs, always speaking the king's English in the presence of white folks, never being outperformed in school or in public by white students and most importantly, always remembering that no matter what, white folks will do anything to get you.

...Mama's antidote to being born a black boy on parole in Central Mississippi is not for us to seek freedom; it's to insist on excellence at all times...There ain't no antidote to life, I tell her. How free can you be if you really accept that white folks are the traffic cops of your life? Mama tells me that she is not talking about freedom. She says that she is talking about survival."

From:"How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance”
An Essay By: Kiese Laymon

I will not lie. I never go to the website that I found this essay on because most of the news I follow is only available through technological sites. It was fortunate for me that not only did I see the link on a dear friend's Facebook page, I became so engrossed after the first few sentences that I opened the link and read the powerful story of a man's experience growing up black in the south. I read that entire essay maybe six or seven times and though the entire thing excited me, it was those two small paragraphs that spoke to me...

I am and always have been an interracial woman of Philadelphia. I don't claim to be otherwise unless someone asks me where I'm from then I'm free to speak the truth and say "I'm from Bayside New York”. When I get tired of hearing, "What are you?” I will lie and lie and

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