My family roots go back farther than I will ever know. At seventeen years old though I know that I embrace my color and ethnicity. I am a dark skin black kid. To the human eye I am a regular black kid, nothing more. No better than the next one you see. As I have learned from my parents and grand-parents, I am so much more.

My grandmother, whose father was Irish, is a white woman throughout, married a black man during one of the worse times in America. She was called names and given dirty looks because of the skin color of the man she loved. She did not care because my grandmother does not make skin color a big issue. Often when I am with her she brags that I am her “GRANDBABY” and people often give puzzled looks and ask “really?” I sit and smile and say yes with a big smile on my face because I am proud of my grandmother, and I know she is proud of me.

This would make my mother half white, half black. She married and had three kids with my father who is an all-black male. This would make me ¾ black, and ¼ white. When I tell people this they usually laugh because of how dark I am. I tell them that my grandmother is all white and how she married my grandfather. I do not mind because I am proud of the way my family is built. I am proud the way my complexion is, I really do not mind. I embrace it.

Though I love being black, I know there are challenges I have to face. Weather I like it or not, I have to work twice as hard as the next guy. I truly believe that. Being a black male is a disadvantage in the working world, no matter if you admit it or not. I am not oblivious to this as I was taught this at a young age. My dad has instilled responsibility, dependability, and work ethic so I can overcome this obstacle.

I am a mixed child that loves everybody the same, no matter the skin color. I truly believe that as a country we have long forgotten about the pass slave times. We are past the segregation days. Though this is true, I know there are still ignorant people that still are in those days. Time has moved on, and so should they.