Reflection Essay

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I gather having lived in 6 different countries now and attended 7 different schools, from the hilly upper-class residences of San Salvador (El Salvador), to the continuous racial brawls occurring in Harare (Zimbabwe), to the vibrant multi-ethnic city that is London (England); I have been exposed to several perspectives, but if two years ago you asked me the question you pose today, I highly doubt I would have been able to give you more than a sentence worth. That is not to say that I was not aware of my blackness, but rather to note that yes, I knew I was black but my blackness was never me. “Blackness, or black tells you how you look without telling you who you are”. Growing up it never seemed necessary to talk about race, the philosophy that …show more content…

Together my twin brother and I established a lot of ‘firsts’ as a result of our dark complexions. During my formative years my fathers’ job had us based in Central America, upon arrival in Colonia Escalon, we discovered that we were the only black family in that neighborhood, the only black family for miles and definitely the only black family to live in a house as big as ours. This was such a phenomenon that we were invited for tea with the former first lady who at the time was absolutely ecstatic to meet the only black babies in town. Luckily for my twin brother and I, our melanin was never a badge of subservience but rather a symbol of difference, allure and diversity. I never really struggled to make friends or to fit in, if anything everyone wanted to be friends with the dark(er) kids, we were different, we were ‘cool’. Looking back, I see how fortunate we were. My black identity has always just been a fact, never a

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