Stereotypical

Dear stereotypical society

These words and phrases ring in my head 

Oh my gosh they’re so ghetto 

Good thing you (hand motion: finger point towards audience) don’t act like that 

You act white

You don’t really act black (make confused before continuation)

But society I ask of you today 

What does it mean to act white? 

What does it mean to act black? 

Does acting black mean running the streets?

Does it mean to act aggressive? 

Does it mean to randomly scream, at the top of my lungs?

For no reason at all?

Does it mean to grow up poor in the hood?

Just because I (Hand motion: point at myself) am not or do not do any of these things 

Does NOT (body motion: stomp foot with the word not) make me any less of a black person 

In a time black people were kings and queens 

So I am simply living life with my blood from royalty

See my parents were those “typical” (hand motion: quotation marks) black people as kids 

Grew up in the hood of two different cities (Hand motion: roll right hand then left to be flat)

LA and Madera

My father in the streets of LA in 1992 during the riots for Rodney King

When fire walked the streets and buildings cried from their misfortune

My mother in Madera

Where she watched family members join gangs like sports teams

And people dropped (Hand motion: hit back hand on palm of right hand) like flies, and no one really seemed to care 

And as the streets flowed rivers of red blood 

With people going bang, drop, dead

They decided that they had enough 

They chose to leave behind their neighborhoods full of horrendous, beautiful tales

To ascend, beyond this normality placed on African American people

To rise above the stereotypical mentality associated with people of color

So I would like to say that I DO NOT act white 

I DO NOT act black

I just choose to live as my ancestors did 

Because I didn’t know it was possible to act a color