I've often referred to myself as gray as well. My mom was white, my dad was Black. I look very white. However, that white can be perceived as awfully dark when people find out my racial makeup. I remember losing playmates, etc. as a child when their parents found out about my father. It's an odd and particularly confusing type of racism to endure as a child, walking around all white looking and being treated as such, then BAM, all of a sudden, it's like you're a different person entirely, according to some people. It's difficult for a kid to process. |I'm not explaining it very well at the moment, I need my coffee. I wrote about it in one of my stories.

Of course, my Black relatives call me white. And no matter where I go, people see my curly hair and ample features and I get the dreaded question, "what are you?" Now I just say, "human."

Over the years, I've learned to embrace both. I'm not one or the other, I'm just me.