1 in a 100

1 in a 100 means you’re special. 

1 in a 100 are ambidextrous. 

1 in a 100 can lick their elbows. 

1 in a 100 can talk while breathing in. 

I am 1 coloured person among a 100.

But I am not “weird”, or “odd”, or “different”, I am excluded.

I am with so many people and yet I feel alone.

I am laughing with them and yet I feel laughed at. 

I am friends with them and yet I feel they are going to stab me in my back.

I can’t let my guard down. 

I can’t talk about my religion.

I can’t rise above. 

I am always inferior to them.

I am always walking on eggshells around them.

I am never my true self when I am with them. 

I feel I am wearing two faces.

I feel I must lie to fit in.

I feel I must abandon my values, my beliefs, and my principles to feel a sense of inclusion. 

I guess not everyone feels this way.

I guess not everyone suffers like this.

I guess not everyone can understand this.

Being another colour means stereotypes get the best of you.

Being another colour means people will judge you even when they don’t know you.

Being another colour means you will always stand out, and not for the right reasons.

So, being unique isn’t always rewarding.                                 

You get push around,

you get made fun of,

you get bullied for something that you have no control over.

We can’t choose the colour of our skin.

We can’t choose what we look like.

We can’t choose who we are.

We are taught to just keep our head down.

We are taught to not stand out.

We are taught to just be invisible.

To avoid trouble, for being another colour.

To avoid being at the wrong place at the wrong time, for being another colour.

To avoid talking in an authoritative tone, for being another colour. 

But I don’t want to do that.

I don’t want to wish that my skin was lighter.

I don’t want to wish that I didn’t have curly hair.

I don’t want to wish that if I was different that I could fit in.

I want to look at my skin and be proud of it.

I want to practice my religion without hate and without hiding.

I want to embrace myself for who I am, not for what I wished I was.

I wish that the world will not judge me before even getting to know me.

I wish that I don’t have to change to fit in.

I wish that people would accept me for who I am.

I know the world can’t change overnight.

I know that tomorrow will not be as different from today.

I also know that I am not the only 1 in a 100.

Being that 1 in a 100 in a world like this one seems unjust.

But every once in a while, being that 1 in a 100 doesn’t seem so bad when you know that one day it will get better.