This is not Ideal.
Photo by Steve Leisher on Unsplash I have struggled for several days to write this blog. I have written many drafts and deleted many pages because while it's my turn to speak, it also isn't. What I will say is that I'm a brown body. I have been harassed by cops when I've been pulled over for a speeding ticket (once), or when a tail-light was out (that I was unaware of) - but even in those instances I never thought I would die. I have been told by various White people what I should and shouldn't wear, what I should and shouldn't say, and how I should and shouldn't behave, as a person of color. I have been called "dirty" by the elementary school children that I shared a classroom with, been referred to as a "maid," asked to translate a language I don't even speak - based upon my looks - and have been referred to as "less than human" by a phrase I'll never forget: "I didn't know that your kind could affor...