Personal Narrative: You Speak Too White

“You speak too white,” is what I have been told all my life. Growing up in a minority-based neighborhood held the implication that I would speak in “black slang”or Ebonics. I grew up told by friends, peers, even random African American citizens that I encountered daily, that my speech was unlike most of my races. At times, many believed my speech entailed that I was of mixed race or that I lived a wealthier life than others. Sadly, my speech and all that came with it led to the bullying of my twin and I to the point that we became insecure of not only our dialect, but ourselves in general. There was a time when I wanted to speak “Black”, I wanted to sound like the others to show that I was one of them as well. That my speech did not change