I always wondered as a child what that must feel like, to be invisible in the media with the only famous people that looked like me being athletes or comedians? What would it be like to never see someone who looked like me on a billboard, in a commercial, in a text book (with very few exceptions) at the doctor’s office, or teaching in my school.
I was literally just having this conversation yesterday with my husband.
Sherry Caris
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I can tell you that it was horrible. That I was so used to being invincible that I didn’t even know I was. There was one day in my 20s when I was on a bus and I realized that in that bus, I was Invincible. No one looked at me, wondered about me, thought what family I had, what my goals were. I WAS the black best friend stereotype in real life. I was there to prop up my white friends without them being so concerned about me. I’ve moved from Toronto to Nairobi now and it’s a tremendous psychological relief that the people on billboards and tv look like me. It’s probably the best thing I’ve experienced about being here and I didn’t even know how much I needed it.