if i woke up white

“What the hell happened to me last night?” That would be my first reaction
if I slept in a black skin and
woke up in a white skin. It would
be a bittersweet moment for me
because I am afraid of change,
especially such drastic superficial changes. However, I would be
pretty excited and anxious to
see and experience the world
from a white person’ s perspective. I would undress and
stare at my skin in the mirror
and for the first time, I would
be able to clearly see all the
“green” veins running up and down my body, something I
can’ t see now. I’ d slap myself and watch the redness rise in
my skin. Then I’ d play with my hair, again another novelty,
then step out and face my
world, in a different light. I would run to the
groceries and ask for typical
white people’ s foods. No more collard greens and corn bread,
too much chicken and soul food!
I’ d eat like a white person, to the amazement of my family.
They would decry my new found
culture, but what do they
expect now that I am white? I
would then walk to school and
not worry about people tightening their grips on their
handbags and wallets when they
saw me walking behind them. I
would smile at strangers instead
of shaking my head like my
people and I usually do. At school, I would sit
with other white kids without
feeling lost, awkward or getting
stared at. I wouldn’ t feel treacherous, different or
favored to be sitting amongst
my “own white people”. I would feel like I belong to this school
and that I am not just here
because the constitution does
not allow for blatant racism or
discrimination against minorities. I
would apply for more scholarships and if I get them, I
would be proud of myself and
not feel like I got them because
of the school’ s desire to be politically correct and all-
inclusive. I would play a white
people’ s sport, like lacrosse or squash and for the first time,
ignore the black cultural
obsession and limitation to
basketball and football. I would
date a white girl without people
identifying me as the person who dates a white girl. If I was caught
running a red-light, being white,
I would not be scared of being a
victim of police stereotype;
moreover the more classic
walking while black offences would never be part of my
worries. I would feel like I belong
more to this country especially
as part of the face of America
that the outside world knows
from movies and magazines. As a white person, it wouldn’ t be big news if another of our own
became president or mayor. It
would feel nice to be at the
peak of the salary pyramid and
have an unwritten advantage
over colored people. It would certainly feel nice to walk into a
supermarket or salon and not
have my hair products or hair
done in the special or ethnic
section. At the end of my
“white” day, I would certainly play outside till late night and
know that my neighborhood is
safe and that I have a fair
chance of attaining the house,
the wife and the two point five
children that make the typical white “American Dream.” I would apply for Med School and if I fail
to join, I would know that I was
rejected because of a genuine
reason, and not because of my
ethnic name. I would sleep
knowing that in case I have a heart attack at night, my
insurance company would be so
eager to pay for my bills and
not look at my skin ask me if I
have an insurance policy. At night, I would go to
wonderland and dream of
Cinderella and Pocahontas and
Alice, dreams that I haven’ t been able to identify with. If I
saw Santa Claus, I would think
that he is one of my own and
not just a created mythical
being to make a white Christmas
more fantastic and beautiful. Even Jesus would seem much
closer and make more sense to
me if I were white, instead of
reading my politically correct
“Jesus for Blacks Bible.” I would sleep and wake up, see my
white skin and say, “The world is mine for the taking”, because I believe in it, not because the
government thinks it is the right
thing to do. "There is thin line between truth
and fiction. This is that line"