The Oreo: Living with Two Feet in Two Different Worlds

Have you ever been called an "Oreo"? Do you even know what an "Oreo" is? Well, in case not, let me clear it up for you before I continue. An "Oreo" is a black person who acts white or, in other words, a person who is black on the outside, but white on the inside...like an Oreo.

I've been called an Oreo my whole life, mostly by my family. They'd jokingly say "you act like a white girl", when I used words that they thought were too proper or if I liked white music artists. When I was a preteen, I was obsessed with the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears (...but who wasn't in the 90's??). Anyway, I've gotten this reaction a lot from my peers also. Some kids thought I was stuck up, because I spoke with decent grammar and did well in school.

Now, the funny thing is that for all my supposedly being "white", I didn't exactly fit in with the white kids either. How come? Because when you're around white kids, the cultural differences are glaringly obvious...There was much more to me than liking some white boy bands. I still was very much black. I mean, what can I say? I still dropped my 'g's and used my habitual 'be'. I still wore Fubu and listened to rap and R&B. I ate fried chicken like there was no tomorrow. Just like any black girl, I didn't wash my hair every day (...yeah, there's a difference). So, either way, in this group I was going to seem different also.

And this entire thing goes back to W.E.B. Du Bois' theory of "Double Consciousness". Here's a quote from The Souls of Black Folk:

"After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,--a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

This experience, no doubt, is something that all black people deal with. However, everything gets even more complicated when you assimilate to the "academic world". I stress the academic world, because a lot of black people think you're acting white if you speak a certain way or you seem to be more intelligent than average. Yet, it's not like all white people speak properly! Speaking properly and being educated is something you achieve through academics! If more black people were educated, is it such a wild idea that they may use some of those "big words" too? I don't know. The whole "Oreo" thing is annoying to me.
Going to a predominantly white school, I realize, beyond a doubt, that I am VERY black! My interactions, daily concerns, and my general take on the world are somewhat different from my white peers and it shows in conversation.

So...I guess my point is: Don't buy into the "Oreo" crap. You're black, you're educated, and you're fine the way you are. Give the haters a mental middle finger and keep on stepping.