This Other

"Do you feel hurt because it's the 'all black people look the same' moment, or because you are being confused with another after being so close to this other?"

This line really stood out to me because up until this point, I had been reading the story as an anonymous mind hearing Rankine's perspective, but this line forced me to face my perspective as a white person reading a book about race. After I read this line, I started thinking about how I see race differently due to my white privilege, and how my life was different from the lives of people of color. During the past couple years I've tried to educate myself more on issues of race and racism, but I'm always learning more. As a white person, I will never fully know what it's like to be a person of color in America, but I can do my best to listen and learn and always pay attention to those with less privilege than me.

In response to this line I wrote a poem of my own.


My hair has always curled tight as toes
with pleasure around my face, dark brown on white as starch
and when I pulled on them they sprang back into place.
I was told, lovely, but not quite, you would
be so much prettier if you just straightened your hair.
So one day I did and the iron burnt and smoked
my lungs full, but they cried, oh girl.
You look so beautiful now.

I knew a girl and her hair always curled tight as fists
around her face black and blacker and blacker still.
Her curls defied gravity but they couldn’t defy
the people who said, hey girl, but not quite, you
would look so much better if you just straightened your hair.
So one day she did, and the chemicals burnt
her skin raw to pieces and poisoned
her lungs stinging, but they said, oh wow.
You almost look like a white girl now.