After being unearthed from the comfort zone of my room to the town's library to study I encountered a very common well-acted upon tale of self acceptance.
Through the occasional breaks of studying. I noticed many different types of people coming in waiting to use the internet service. Some were students, a security guard, Mormons, and the like.
Yet, the one which stood out the most was this "newly brown, black lipped lady" who pranced into the library and had a seat adjacent to me. I acknowledged her presence and continued with my attempts at studying. Anyway, after a mid silence, I was interrupted by a loud grumbling behind me, it seems that the lady at the front desk was finally fed up of this "browning" who repeatedly brings her bag into the library. After the browning was ordered to submit the bag to the head desk, an argument ensued...
Lady at the front desk: " I tell her all the time...." I could only guess she was gesticulating some action to the crowd behind me due to the shake in her voice.
The browning tried feebly to defend herself, and could only repeatedly utter the words " don't talk to me like that."
But the short, "lady at the front desk" overpowered the browning publicizing her "shame" to the local crowd. No feeble attempts of demanding self respect could prevent her from instilling the rules of the Library.
I can only guess that from the argument, that this had happened before.
Anyway after a period , the "browning" took her seat, and remained quiet.
I resumed the studying thinking I finally had some silence.
When it happened.
The "browning" stuck again. This time she called a neighbouring boy, who was busy on his laptop, to share her experience of "color division".
She had been slighted far too many times by her own people.
Apparently, whenever she goes to the embassy and brings her camera in, the "white" people "tell her nicely" to "take it out." But when she come around "black" people "them don't know how to talk to each other," and that is why "white people" will forever "step on black people."
She further went on to shed her knowledge on the division of nationalities in the Caribbean, and how the "Barbadians hate the Jamaicans."
Whenever she's at the airport, she gets treated badly because she's a Jamaican, and when she goes to "foreign", she won't be " keeping any black people company."
It now became lucid to me why she trying to "bleach" away every shed of black skin on her body. I'm guessing when, she reaches at "foreign", she will be clear enough to fit among the whites and browns, and will shun every black person she sees.
Yet, I wonder though how will she manage to get rid of the "blackness" in her lip? I hear that one part can be tricky.
Anyway, the lessons I learned today are:
1. It doesn't matter what social class you stand in, or your race, rules are rules. Respect them.
2. The strongest and truest people, will reprimand you for your mistakes.
3. Strong people do not apologise for defending their rights or instilling the rules. In other words, the strong does not back down and cower in the corner. They fight!
4. People who "accept" themselves are far happier simply because they have less time worrying, and trying to fit into another's perception of "acceptable."
Love yourself!
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