2002-11-06 - 1:53 a.m.
There is a haze that covers me from head to toe. There is a stigma that follows me wherever it is that I may go. There is a connotation in my complexion and an expectation that proceeds my every word.
There is a label that confines me. That restricts my movement and tries to keep me in a box. There is a word that makes you think I am what I am not. There are these barriers that keep you from knowing me. Causing you to believe misconceptions, deceptions and projections I do not prescribe to.
I am not black. I am not African. I have never seen the mother continent and do you know her beauty. Please do not bestow upon me a privelage that I am not worthy of. I am not a fag. I smoke cigarettes, I do not get smoked. I am not a sissy, or a punk although I am a bitch. I may use the word fag to make fun of it but I can do that, because I know that it is not what I am. Who I am, what I am, who I will be, has nothing to do with my race, color, sexual orientation religion or creed. My beliefs go beyong any of the labels that you sons of bitches would like to place on me. You wish to label me so that you can control me. The labels you place on me, however, should inform you that I am not controlable. Nigger suggests that I am wild and untamed. Fag, queer, and any other word you would like to use suggest that I am unrefined, weird and not at all understandable.
Do not put me in a box. You have on idea where I come from. I am a child of mixed heritage. If I claim that, the blacks will say that I am just trying to fit in with the whites. The whites will wonder what my parents were thinking. Some may even think to themselves, "tragig mullato". I am a human being. I am an American. I know the American experience. I know what it is like to grow up in the ghetto, I know what it is like to live in the penthouse. That is the real American experience. I am more American that any one of you sons of bitches that think you are entitled to anything in this country. Not only am I a descendent of those that were here before Columbus "discovered" something that was already there, not only am I a descendent of the people whose backs this country was built on but I am also a descendent of the people that stole it from everyone else. I am the American dream. The freedom and audacity to be myself and say fuck you.
And another thing. PABLO PICASSO. YOU ARE WITH THE WRONG GUY. HE IS GOING TO HURT YOU.
THIS PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY BRANDON HOUSTON. AND THE ANGER AND RESENTMENT THAT FESTERS EVERYTIME SOMEONE REMINDS HIM THAT PEOPLE CAN'T LOOK PASS RACE.
