yellow or purple

Was watching local news on tv. In response to recent complaints of racism by parents/students, this school official was saying that they have a lot of diversity at their school and he didn't think it was a problem. My problem with this is how he worded his comment...we have lot of diversity here, black, white, yellow, Jewish, Muslim...I'm very proud of our diversity. Yellow? I mean what group of people are yellow? One might of course argue that white and black aren't exactly descriptive either, yet for some reason, these seem more acceptable to me, more so than say yellow or purple even. And what about people who don't exactly fall into any of those categories? I think it'd be better to say that they have a racially and ethnically diverse community. But what do I know?

I don't identify with the African American label that's the only box on many of these stupid forms here that I can check. I usu end up checking that box b/c I don't like the 'other' tag either. I'm not exactly African or American as my passport/visa can attest. I think of myself as black and/or West Indian. Mostly though, I don't think of myself as any particular thing. I don't know if this is partly due to the fact that many black West Indians, myself included, have 2 or more different ancestries in our families within the last 2-3 generations that we know of. I don't disclose that to most because I'm mostly black and I look black so why not. Life is confusing enough, right? It is kind of cool to know your ancestry though.

A friend of mine who's white once said that she was glad for her Caucasian ancestry b/c then she doesn't have to do anything with her hair. I have mine relaxed every 2-3 months b/c I prefer it straight and slick as opposed to my natural curly and frizzy. I did respond by saying that if I could choose, I wouldn't want Caucasian hair, which seemed to surprise her. I have seen many people with hair that is so dry and unconditioned and unhealthy-looking. I certainly don't want their hair. Also, many people change their hair regardless of race, if its straight-you want it curly, curly-you want it straight, then there's the whole range of color options that people take advantage of. I don't see why you shouldn't change such things if you want, not like its invasive cosmetic surgery. I'm all for people making their own decisions about such things even the cosmetic surgery though I don't really understand why poeple would want to have surgery that's not medically necessary. To each his own.

There are times of course when I'm more aware of being black than at other times like when I'm bored in meetings and I'm just looking around. Then I sometimes count, #women, #Ph.Ds, #B.S., # non-white, #black, #asian and so forth. Living in an area that is predominantly white, sometimes you can't help but notice the numbers. I grew up in a predominantly black/east indian mix and now I'm living in the flip version of this.

I wonder if people who fall into the yellow or purple category are as offended by those terms as I am or are they not bothered as I am not bothered about being referred to as black.