The Art of Being Black in White Spaces

Lesson #1: “You black (and that’s a problem).”

Ruth Terry
Human Parts
Published in
8 min readSep 12, 2019

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Photo: piola666/Getty Images

LLearning the Art of being black in white spaces is a lifelong process that begins with a single lesson: “You black (and that’s a problem).” I got lesson number one out of the way in kindergarten when Daniel, the other black kid in my class, informed me, “You black!” I went home sobbing. “But Mom, I’m brown! I’m brown!”

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Ruth Terry
Human Parts

American freelancer in Istanbul writing about culture, mental health, race & travel. Bylines everywhere from Al Jazeera to Zora. Tw: @Ruth_Terry | IG: @ruth.ist