"How it Feels to be Colored"

Sarah beth,
I feel in so many ways that Zora and I are the same. Last sememster I found myself walking into what I thought was going to be a rather Diverse class since it was a credit towards that, but I was mistaken. I was the only white person in there other than a girl who I later found out was mixed, not saying that I didnt already know. I took the class so I could understand different cultures more,African American was one of them. My class was African-American Lit.
They didnt treat me any different I knew they were wondering why I was in there, but none the less, I was equal.I was equal untill we were forced to watch a movie called " Ethnic Notions" I dont recommend watching it. It pin-pointed how cruel whites were when slavery was slowly becoming outlawed and how whites would learn that it was wrong and they would have to treat everyone equal and do there own work. It showed vivid images of Africans being hung and horrible songs and advertisements against them. I could hear the faint whispers of my class mates hating whites and threatning to do the same to them.I was scared, but I am not the past. I would never repeat that cruel time.Just as Zora was finding out she was different even though she didnt realize it untill someone pointed out she was. I noticed as I would walk across campus with them how people pointed me out like a rat in a cage full of mice. I dont feel any different. I am not and I refuse to be treated like I am. I refuse to believe the Doll test done by the "Clarks" I know that I am the same, thats all that matters. I don't think you should have to stay in your hometown to feel equal I want to be able to go anywhere and know I am only different from my reflection, nothing else. Take a minute Sarah, look at a class full of caucasions, none of us are the same color. I tan, you really think that a girl of my height, weight and age that never tans looks like me. We are the color, weight, and height to which are enviorment allows us. Africans in Africa are taller and darker so that they can reflect the sun off of them and keep colored, besides the fact that they are closer to the equator. Eskimos are short and quit jubby with higher cheek bones so that they may keep warmer and also reflect the sun. We are only adapting so that we may survive. We dont see it because we are so obsorbed with the society that T.V. has told us to be. We think being tall, thin, and rich makes us beautiful only because we are watching and sucking in every last bit of whats popular and now. I know, even I do it. I only know whats beautiful for what I see. I feel if I didnt have long hair, stayed thin and tanned I would lack beauty. I have forgotten and lost sight, that My beauty only truly lies within. I am merely a creation on what society thinks beauty is. I have stayed true to the fact agaisnt plastic surgery and tactoos and pericings. I wish to stay pure for as long as my body will allow it. Nothing sharp or ink filled will ever touch my body. I would like to think in some way I still stray pure.
Now, I know this is far from Zora and her story but in a lot of ways I am telling a story that I feel is just like hers. I am an outlaw to a society, a class that I was placed in by a Acedemic adviser which indeed was African American, that picked it for me, and I just another notch on a chart of staticts that will one day be issued as making EMU that more diverse. I only wish to learn, not be conned into something.Maybe I am just another bag placed on a wall with other bags of brown, yellow, red, and white.PLEASE let me know if I should write more to recieve credit, I know its not much about the article but I understood it,obsorbed it, and gained great writting from it. I know out of anyone you would understand. The reading was like a drug which fueled me to write. I thank you for that. I have not wrote this passionate about something in a long time.
Again Truly,
Amanda Elizabeth