What does it *really* mean to be a woman of colour?
I thought I already knew, but there’s sooooooo much I didn’t know!
I grew up in Mauritius, where the majority of the people are dark-skinned.
This summer, as I was getting ready for an appointment to meet my new banker, I noticed how much effort I was putting into how I looked.
When I met with my banker in Mauritius, the colour of my skin didn’t have as much of an impact on how trustworthy I’d be considered as it does here.
I thought I’d only started experiencing my difference when I came to Europe, and more specifically to Italy.
(Don’t even get me started on that, being a person of colour in Italy is not for the faint of heart, and also one of the reasons why I left in 2019, and why I chose not to stay in 2022)
But I digress….
Recently, I’ve been listening to “So You Want to Talk about Race” by Ijeoma Oluo and I’m really enjoying it!!
(Thanks Shannon Whaley for always having great resources to point me to!)
As I said, I thought I knew already what it means to be a woman of colour.
But actually, there’s so much more that I didn’t know was part of it until the author pointed it out.
I’m a nerd.
I love understanding things.
I love understanding how they work and why they are the way they are. Including, AND ESPECIALLY, humans and society.
(In fact, I studied sociology as part of my curriculum both in high school and university.)
Not only did this book help me understand more about what it means to be a person of colour in a predominantly white country,
I also found SO MANY parallels with how race and ethnicity played a role in my home country where the predominant majority is of Indian origins, and how my being Indian-passing impacted my experience.
It actually opened a whole new can of worms and played a huge role in my choosing to apply for a Master’s degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology, but I digress… again!
What I really really REEEEEALLY loved about this book is that Ijeoma Oluo’s sense of humour makes it a fun listen even though it’s an important and serious topic.
If you are a member of any society (as opposed to living on a desert island, on your own, with no contact whatsoever with anyone around you), I strongly recommend you check out this book.
Even if you don’t read all of it, some of it is better than none of it!
And if we’re friends, I would really love for you to read it, as a way for us to connect on a deeper level, since the way I look shapes my experience of life.
If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your recommendations for anything along the same style that addresses the way our modern society works.