They say to me,
“You’re not really brown, you know.”
Or,
“I thought you were White.” and
“Oh, well you don’t look
(insert: Latino, Spanish, Jewish, Arab,
Middle-Eastern, BROWN.)
I know what my skin looks like:
café
au lait, with too much lait
Brown isn’t a skin colour,
Brown is an experience
Brown is being told
To speak English
Brown is being called a terrorist on the
train
When someone confuses your yarmulke with a kufi
Brown is people mispronouncing your name
Every fucking day
Brown is being afraid security is gonna be
called
When you’re browsing the aisles
Brown is being told to go back to where you
came from,
When your apartment is just a block away
Brown is being assaulted in public,
With everybody watching
Brown is being scared of walking alone at
night,
Of airports, the police, your own
neighbours
Brown is being told
Your experience doesn’t matter
Brown is an experience.
I am brown.
