"You're Black, but not Black enough"

This week, we've been reading Nella Larsen's novel Passing. The themes of "racial identity" and "having a place to belong to" are what sparked my personal blog this week.

I am an African-American woman. Always have been, always will be. However, there seems to always be someone trying to take me out if that African-American category. Nowadays, it's called "having your Black card revoked" (I've had mine supposedly revoked a couple of times now). Growing up, I was never quite Black enough to be completely accepted by my Black friends. I either "talked too white", "dressed like a white girl", or wasn't knowledgeable enough on Black culture to be considered an African-American. They even frowned upon me hanging out with out white counterparts. BUT to be fair, who else was I supposed to hang out with when my own supposed "people" won't hang out with me? They just seemed to never be able to accept me into a culture I thought I was already in.

In Nella Larsen's Passing, Clare passing as a white woman is seen as her not accepting her Black heritage and her Black culture. But what about when it's the other way around? Who is supposed to be at fault then? The people denying me acceptance or me for trying so hard to gain their approval? Stay tuned to find out.