I Am

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I wrote this poem during my freshmen year at Vassar College. It reflects the way I tried to deal with the dissonance between growing up in the Bahamas, in a mainly black society, and then living in America on a predominantly white liberal arts campus. I came to realize in the writing process that my life experiences were in no way original; there are, in fact, a series of black individuals, black Bahamians, who have been socialized to feel and think a certain way about themselves, race and racism. I hope there will be a time when this poem does not mirror so closely our personal realities.

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