LQM*

Earlier someone told me that I should never tell anyone what my true ethnicity is.

Logic behind that (Apart from saving my race embarrassment)…. Is if you ever get caught doing something you shouldn’t be**, and word travels, about you behind ur back, and they refer to you as say “That Italian guy” but you are really Cuban, you can deny any wrong doing by simply saying “Baby that wasn’t me I’m Cuban, not Italian, and I couldn’t have been wearing an Orange shirt and blue tie”. I guess that’s the jist of the idea.

Initially I thought the advice was retarded considering, some might refer to me as Pitch Black. I really can’t claim or pass for anything but African***.

The whole concept intrigued me the more I thought about it. Living In a multicultural community. There are really no such things as just Black, White, Hispanic, or Asian people.

I guess its like attending one of those large classes, in college where there is no way the professor will know your name, so he will call you out to answer a question by referring to the clothes you are wearing****. He cant say hey black guy, or hey White guy, Apart from appearing racist there will more than likely be more than one black person, or one white person in class etc. So he will need something to differentiate.

I guess out here we classify ourselves by country of origin (even if it is 2 or 3 generations, deep) or in my case by continent, so now that I think about it I’m not Black, I’m African! Reading that over it sounds retarded. But in all, honestly I guess they refer to me as African not black, and likewise I see people as Dominican, Thai, Greek, Mexican, Polish or Tomatian, Etc and not by color.

So I guess I can pass for any Ethnicity, because here that means country of origin.

It’s one of those things, end of the day you can be White, Black or Malato and be Zimbabwean, English, Brazilian or from any other country, and that will be your identity (and not color of your skin) . I guess its another reason why I appreciate the multicultural cities, where you are defined by your country of origin, as opposed to skin color.

I think its good, at least that way I wont be mistaken for coming from some godforsaken place like Brooklyn.

It also means, the Purple Shirts and Orange Ties are in! And if anyone asks my name is Robert Horry, and I am Tomatian!

* Laughing Quietly to Myself

** Like wearing badly coordinated clothes to work.

*** Factor in the accent

**** And if you are smart, and coordinated, everyone will wear white t-shirts to class!