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Becca Khalil And Nayo Jones: Poem Analysis

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Growing up, I was too young to think or care about race. I always identified myself as a person, not a race. As a child, my mother told me that if anyone asked me what I was to tell them I was the color of love. Poetry has always been a way that I have expressed myself and what I turned to in order to realize I was not alone in this world. Since I have been reading and going to see poetry performed for so long the poem that I connect most with is not a poem that we have read or analyzed in class. The poem is called “Ambiguous” performed by Becca Khalil and Nayo Jones. This poem is about the racial identity of a “mixed” girl. This poem captures my life. I am a biracial female that is both black and white but always told by everyone else “You …show more content…

People in this world find it easier to destroy something they do not understand then to embrace it. I am exhausting of having to explain my almost dark skin and why I do not brush and wash my hair every day. This poem expresses how so many biracial girls feel about choosing one side of themselves when they are equally both but ultimately not being comfortable around either because they still question what they are. People say things like “Which one are you more comfortable around?” and “Why do you talk white?” as if these things affect our race and who we are. As a biracial human being, we are living in limbo where you can be everything and nothing at the same time. These are things that could truly cause problems in a person’s life and cause them to question their identity. People expect you to pick one race over the other. Especially when you fill out applications, and they ask you to "check the box of your race". There is rarely ever an option for people to check “other" or "mixed" box for an application or form. Even rarely there is instruction where it allows you to pick more than one. You may be mixed with so many races and have them all be you but at the same time, you are alone lost in between the people on either the black or white side. I have been called things such as “Oreo”, “redbone”, “panda”, etc. Oreo is a slur that refers to a black person having a "white" personality. This

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