The worst thing in the world is being in an affluent white area and the look of shock you get 50 times a day from white people who are shocked you sound just like them. I was adopted and raised by a white family. I’m also biracial and sometimes people mistake me for Latina. Either way I’m not white to white people. I have brown skin and I have to deal with them pausing every time I open my mouth. They always stare at me like I’m a creature they can’t believe they are seeing. They often drop things start talking quickly over me so they don’t have to hear my voice. Some of them get offended and look at me with an offended expression. It’s those micro-aggressions that drive me crazy. It’s not that “you’re one of the good ones.” I could care less about that, that’s just stupidity. But to be made to feel like I’m an animal in a cage just because I happen to sound just like them. Gives me high levels of anxiety. Even my district bosses look at me like I’m an animal they are afraid of. I’ve met a lot of African American females who try to adopt a more “white sounding” (trust me I know even saying white sounding is racist but it’s how American society has chosen to frame that discussion.)It often sounds like an exaggerated “Valley Girl” accent. I know they are just adopting that voice because they feel pressure to fit into white society. I can hear that it sounds like an accent that is being put on. I don’t sound like that. I never realized until I had more experiences that I sounded different than that. I thought that many people had heard African Americans who sounded different than the stereotype but I never realized why I was getting the stares I did. I think the fact that I was adopted by a white family is what creates the difference in sound. Either way it’s wrong we as African Americans have to put up with even being anxious and critical of our own speech patterns just to please white people. There is a silver lining in all of this as it relates to the white people who gawk at me and make me feel anxiety just for living my life. I’m going to heaven when I die.