Passing

by Angeline Montauban

I am a very light-skinned Black woman.
I look white but I am black.
I look European but I am African.

In America, I had to choose
Between White and Black.
I felt forced to select White Supremacy.
I’ve felt forced to suppress, deny, reject
The Black in me.

Passing means: acceptance, good, innocent,
opportunities, beauty. I am choosing not to pass
for White.

I am choosing not to pass for white for all the
Black women who came before me:
Phyllis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and
the Nameless Black women who toiled and survived.

The Black maids, the Black nannies, the Black storekeepers,
The Black mistresses and the Black sharecroppers.

They are vast, they are wide.  They are the oceans.
They were strong and they are beautiful.