When I was five years old, every girl in my class was invited to a sleep over. Every girl but me.
I asked my friend why I couldn't come to her sleep over and she said she heard her mother say that black people steal, and she didn't want me to steal her things.
But I guess thats just how the world is.
When I was eight we went to the zoo on a class trip, I heard the boys laughing at the monkey and then one turned to me and said, how did I escape from my cage.
But I guess that's just how the world is.
When I was ten, I came home and my parents were crying. I asked them what happened, where was my brother? My father sat me down and said my brother wasn't coming home. God took him back to heaven.
But I guess that's just how the world is.
I didn't understand, I was too young. Yet when I was fourteen, I was asked why I painted my skin. Why was I not in the zoo, was I carrying a gun. I went home and I asked my father why would people ask me these things. He said because this is how the world is.
But I guess that's just how the world is.
Compelled I asked my father, what happened to my brother and he said, the world happened. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time and he was pulling out his cell phone which a police officer mistakened for a gun.
But I guess that's just how the world is.
When I was fifteen, I saw the world differently. My father died, my mother gone, my brother dead. I was alone. Yet these people that had treated me differently because of the color of my skin, because I was different, they came to me and pitted me. They treated me like a equal and why? Because they guilty.
But I guess that's just how the world is.
