I’m not white.

For the first time today, I was recognized as ‘not white’.

By a black person.

And it felt awesome.

Confused? I’ll attempt to explain quickly.

I’m descended from several grandparents who are part Native American, though we only know one tribe for certain. My maternal grandfather’s mother was a full blood Apache adopted by a German couple. We were talking about hair styles, different lengths, textures, et cetera, et cetera, and so in the midst of showing photos of my various hair styles over the years, I shared my senior picture. In the preceding conversation, we had already established my current age. This woman looked at the photo, looked at me, and said, “Are you Native? Looking at that picture and you now, you are aging really well! I’m looking at that and thinking you ain’t white.”

Normally I have to actually tell people I’m not fully Caucasian for them to even notice. But she did.

And it made my day.