Other.

“What are you?” is a question that has seemed to reverberate in my ears throughout most of my life.  Since my mother is German and my father is from the deep south of Alabama; my appearance cannot be linked with any particular race.  The yellow-brown hue of my skin and my thick curly hair puzzles most, and for awhile puzzled even me.

            Most of my life I struggled to fit into a world where I now realize I was born to stand out.  I made silly choices concerning friends, thinking the race of them would ultimately define my identity as well.  One of the reason's I have identified so strongly  with Drake is that he too is bi-racial. Like me his mother is white and his father is black. In interviews Drake talks about how hard it was for him to be taken seriously in the rap world because he was half white. Growing up bi-racial I think is especially hard for any child because at some point you must make the decision- do I hang out with the black kids or the white kids. It'd be nice if such a decision didn't have to be made but unfortunately that's not the case. Think about it when you look around at USC don't you usually see cliches of friends separated by race?

What do you think, am I more black or more white???

      I used to sit at home and wish I was either just white or just black because it would make life so much easier.  Kids at school would poke fun at me calling me “other,” since in their opinion I either didn’t act black enough or white enough.   At the time these comments struck me very hard, but it is my mother who I thank for making me a stronger and wiser person.  She taught me that those who can’t see past physical appearances aren’t even worth my time.  I learned that it is your actions and aspirations that ultimately define who you are and what you’ll become.   I now feel lucky to live a life that cannot be tagged with a specific label.  Though ironically I'm about to add some labels to this post...