How Colored Folks Do Sometimes…..

During my odyssey to blend into this world on occasion I felt I had found lasting friendships among people of color in America. I would soon find out, that many were just interested in finding out my business, weaknesses and strengths just so they can use the information they retrieved against me.

All during the friendships I was innocent and naive, never thinking I was being monitored or spied upon for fodder. However, as life unfolded over the years it became apparent I was usually being used in one way or another.

I began to realize that being a non-descript foreigner meant that you would always endure skepticism. At times, you may inspire hate and jealousy simply because you have the ability to wax and wane between two worlds. Now that I am older I get their little “isms” of pretentious bourgeoise behavior and feeling that most foreigners are competition.

Perhaps it is the way most Americans feel, both coloreds and non-colored. Except one speaks about it and shows it more boldly; while the rest kills with kindness and undermines quietly. I would like to believe there is good in any race, but since Nine Eleven it has become a “dog eat dog” kind of world racially.

I will tell you a story about my friend Simona. Like myself, Simona considers herself white, Jamaican Asian. Her whole life she battled to fit in, but it was always a struggle. Caucasians gave her a difficult time because she was very exotic and seemed to attract all sort of admirers, while colored folks didn’t want to deal with her because they did not know how to place her.

At times they would jokingly call her “no race”. Simona set out on a campaign to win over the minorities in her community and school. She began listening to the music, studying the way they talked, learning everything she could about the culture hoping that she would be more accepted.

For the most part, some groups would find her interesting and entertaining indulging her from time to time. For a while, She felt she had truly gained acceptance, except when a really dirty trick was played on her.

It was the night of graduation and they had invited her to a party. When Simona got there she met three of her “supposed girlfriends” at the door. They urged her to go in, however once she had fully entered the house, the door slammed shut and she was in complete darkness.

As she fumbled her way through the house, she heard people talking and laughing but could not see them. She kept yelling. “C’mon stop playing!”

However, the shenanigans continued. Once she was in the basement, she was accosted by a few guys and girls fondling her. They were touching her hair, groping her body, asking “What are you…Are you white or black?”

She responded “I am a person!”

Suddenly the people who she thought were friends warped into a diabolic set of agitators, exclaiming, “If you want to be black so bad, let’s see if you can bring it on home like the sisters do?”

One of the guys began touching her inappropriately dragging her into a back room. Simona began screaming “Fire!” as loud as she could until a concerned neighbor rang the doorbell and the group dispersed with fear. She ran out of there so fast her head was spinning all the way home.

When she arrived home she realized she had left her satchel there with her money and identification. For several days she called her friends to return her purse to her, but they refused. They told her the only way she could get her personal items back was if she “played nice”.

In their world, that meant being at their beck and call night and day. As long as she drank with them, smoked with them and fornicated with them, she would have a chance of getting her important documents back. In the grand scheme of things, she should have told her parents what was happening, but like most teenagers, she felt she could handle the situation.

After many years, the situation was never handled. Eventhough, she did get her things back, she ended up becoming just like them. They had managed to brainwash her into their way of thinking and acting. It was as if they were a cult.

Simona became disassociated from her own heritage because they had her convinced that the only way she could succeed in life was through associating with them. They sold her an illusion that, as long as she remained firmly under their grip all would be right with the world.

However, what she did mot realize was oftentimes, satan’s disciples portray falsehoods in order to control others. She could not realize that God is our true navigator. So like vultures, they tried to steal her soul and whatever else they could help themselves to, but then God stepped in and said, “Enough is Enough!”

And just like that, the party was over……….