Thursday, June 07, 2007

Color me

Often many people ask me, "What are you?" of course they are referring to my heritage, but I always love to play the hard-to-get-game with that question. I have three automatic responses for that kind of question: A) I'm a new yorker , B) What do I look like, or C) why do you ask?

I can't help but question the motive behind the person who is asking me that kind of question. I know that sometimes people are just unsure or curious. That probably makes the most sense right? I guess so.

For me often enough people will assume I'm another race because to them I look exotic. Maybe I do, especially when I wear a lot of makeup or when I'm in costume.

Still there are others who ask about what race you are in order for them to size you and judge you differently. I don't like the idea of being labeled and judged based on what I am versus who I am. I like to be judged based on my merits not my ethnicity or anything so ridiculous.

Sometimes when people find out that I'm not the kind of ethnic race they expect me to be they begin to take away my dance creditability. All of a sudden they will view me as a good dancer instead of the great dancer they loved during my performance. Why you ask this may be? Simple they believe only certain races can be true bellydancers-- that just makes no sense of course.

If you want to know what race I am, then pick a color. Color me the shade you please, just don't attach my dance skill to it. That will really push my buttons!

Even in this blog I'm not going to say what I am. It's not because I'm not proud of my race (goodness no I love my people). It's because again this blog is part of my belly dance life. I'm a belly dancer and that's all you really need to know.

P.S: Okay... I confess, I love making people guess what race I am just for fun =)