Well, I'm Choctaw Indian, that's American Indian, 'Red" Indian, whatever; when people look at me they think – and TREAT me like – "Black." It sucks. Trying to do anything, be anything, get jobs, etc, all SUCKS. I already have a Math teaching license, degrees from Cornell and Yale, and still life SUCKS. Those things will tend to get me interest [in jobs] but the second people see me, the interest evaporates and here comes the "black" treatment. The "thanks for stopping by" treatment. The "YOU went to Yale?" treatment.
That's why it matters. Black is perceived to be the race with the least intelligence on the planet. Never mind that the first PhD in Mathematics in this country was given to a Black person, a Yalie. In the 1800's. Not recently. Not since the 1967 Supreme Court ruling. Over 150 years ago. Yet all of this evaporates the minute people see the shade of my skin. Immediately. Within nanoseconds.
Being "black" in America is not about the color of your skin. Being Native American, too, apparently is about whether or not you "look black." It's almost to the point now where I don't want to leave the Rez anymore for anything because that's the only way I don't have to deal with people talking to me about Africa, about the "African American" this, that, or the other (yes even at Yale that sort of thing happened – but then why wouldn't it, Yale is in Connecticut's "ghetto" surrounded by a city with 37% blacks) and saying these things AT me as if they apply to me. Or on the more "polite" side just turning me down for everything I apply for after they see me.
