being mixed is such a privilege you say
i lead a life of freedom and privilege
how can you assume
when i’m the offspring of the oppressed and the oppressor?
i am bound and unchained at the same time. i am all, and i am none. sometimes i feel i was not meant to be. but i am a symbol of the future, of love. i am a child of hope.
i am a girl made from clay, kneed me as you please.
too dark for white people, then let me burn my curls away, and speak more leisurely, more quietly. let me wipe my wide smile and be simple.
too white for black people, i’ll style my edges only to be mocked and left behind.
years of assimilation and self-degradation have taught me that there is no happy medium, how can there be an in between such stark concepts. in a world full of steel-framed boxes, i choose to be a box cutter.
in a world of bleakness and darkness i choose to be the Sun.
— snippet of afro latina, by yannie