Unpacking The Oreo: Pt 1

“You’re that ‘white’ black girl, the oreo”

From 6 years old to well into my late 20’s, I knew in my body that i’d not be able to breech this subject until I was around 35. Here were a few things I knew in my body, right off the bat:

• No one will believe what I have to say because I am considered too young to believe here.

• There are larger forces at work moving people of all races to call me this.

• Something is deeply, deeply wrong with this reality.

Fast forward - I was right about all three.

In the book My Grandmother’s Hands, Dr. Resmaa Menakem talks about the “Trauma —> Trait —> Culture” pipeline. The three step journey that solidifies a people, and the people’s “culture” to be the summation of the trauma they’ve endured, and nothing more.

There is a double perception happening that solidifies the pipeline itself.

The people belonging to the culture view themselves through a white filter of perception.

Other people outside of the culture view the culture in question through a white filer of perception.

Whether being called an Oreo, Twinkie, or Coconut, individuality is not attributed to members of the global majority.

People who’ve endured the eradication of their individuality by attributing their interests to whiteness have suffered due to the perception prison of others.

Yes, other people are, until they decide otherwise, in a strategically manufactured perception prison.

The Oreo, Twinkie, and Coconuts are the proof.

Basic human emotions and states of being like sadness, are denied to Black people. The Black man showing sadness would be considered an Oreo, as they aren’t living up to what Black culture is, effectively. Unless we begin to define ourselves as Black meaning “all encompassing and limitless”, we’ll continue holding one another to inauthentic, arbitrary standards.