Circumspecte

** This is a testimonial on identity that I wrote for my Intergroup Dialogue Class. Comments and criticism are welcome, but should be constructive and respectful. I have always been one to ponder things, so I stumbled upon the fact that I am complex quite early in my life. I also consider myself to be ‘old at heart’, and therefore have no qualms about educating others – both young and old – on my theories concerning life. Until I came to the US, I wasn’t as aware of my “blackness” as I am now. In many ways, that word didn’t even apply to me, seeing that I was relatively light-skinned and would instead be termed as having a “milk chocolate” skin tone, instead of a “dark chocolate” skin tone. If the question of saliency had come up with regards to my life in Ghana, I would have been quick to say that there is ‘no racism’, and so the issue of racial identity would not have been important or evident to me. Today, I hold a totally different view: racism does exist in Ghana, as well as