
A friend recently said ''Salome, you're ashamed of being black. You're trying to be white''.
In shock and amazement I asked to explain her statement: she justified it by mentioning my accent , the dominance of English in speech and my interests and referred to me as a ''snob''. I felt bullied and judged
Is there a ranking for ''blackness'' if so what is it based on? Is that the darkness of one's skin? The way in which the speak? Their opinion on hip-hop? WHAT IS IT?
Judging is PLAIN WRONG, but if we judge shouldn't it be on person's moral compass rather than how they present themselves?
South Africa has 11 official languages, not Zulu and Sotho BUT 11 (English included) ; Is it wrong for one to comfortable interchange between any two languages? Aren't we living in a democracy?
I find in the black community we tend to ostracize people who slightly different to us; We'll call them names and even go as far as accusing of not being black enough. This saddens me, as the black race is the most diverse and beautiful race on earth, shouldn't we then accept that there will be different personalities as there are skin tones? Why are we afraid of uniqueness?

I love my dark chocolate skin tone and my intensely coarse hair ; I love my complex family and how I live in a country where I can use whichever language I feel comfortable in to express myself; right now I tell my mom that I love her Sotho and then proceed to tell her about my day in Afrikaans (Isn't that amazing?)
Until we start embracing and encouraging diversity, we can never be united.
That ''enlightened'' awkward African girl