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I love diversity. This week I had two incidents that made me “question my position”.
Incident One I went to the beach with some new people. On the way to the beach we stopped at a rest stop. One of the ladies was very concerned she didn’t have a brush—neither did the convenience store. I reassured her that stores on the boardwalk would have one. Whew—she gave a big sigh of relief. Cause my hair is sooo nappy! she exclaimed.
What makes this statement interesting, it that I was rockin the supper nappy ‘fro. She was of mixed race. White and Asian. That girl did not have one kink, curl or wave in her head to consider it nappy. Did my nappy presence make her uncomfortable and mix up her words OR was she trying to be down with the afro wearin Black girl?
Pictured: While on the beach I wore a hat to keep my hair safe from the hot sun.
Incident Two It happened at a business networking event. I am a big fan of the organization because everyone is super friendly! As far as active participants I am the youngest, and only person of color. So at the networking event, I was speaking with a group of people. Let’s call him “Bob,” was telling a story about his wife—his friend said “Yeah, your wife is 90-pounds soaking wet”. Bob disagreed,
“No! She has some ethnic in her – she’s thick. She has some Puerto Rican in her blood line.”
hmmmm
The white lady in the group looked at him, then me and walked away. I guess us “ethnics” are all thick and bootylicious. 
It was no biggie. I knew exactly what he was saying.
Is there a handbook on how the Black person should react in these situations without being the token Black girl? At least my vet knows I have twist - kind of 
. Being in these situations magnifies how different I really am from my peers.
Pictured: I twisted my hair in lager sections than usual, but kept each section thin by twisting wet single strands, before two-strand twisting.
A lot of people that are not of color have thick, kinky, nappy hair.
We have no idea what they deal with when their hair is freshly washed and only see the end product.
She may flat iron her hair to death every few days to get the look you see.
Also, ideas of nappy vary from culture to culture.
Some black women would have been super offended by her statement, actually by anyone using the word nappy.
The definition of nappy is kinky, tightly curled or coiled.
This could very well be true for her.
As the token black girl, laugh and smile at all their corniness and don’t think anything as personal attack unless it is just that.
You obtained your position based on your skill-set, not your kinks or booty, so continue to do your best work and keep being YOU.