To be young, gifted, and FAT!

There's always drama when kids get out of school and you happen to be on the train or bus with them. After working a long day the last thing anyone wants to do is sit on the train with loud, hormone induced, cowardly-rude teenagers who are simply trying to assess their man/womanhood after being caged up in a D.C. Public School building all day.

Today was just like any other day. A group of three girls boarded the train making their presence known with vulgar banter, talks of Mr. Parker's Math class, the cutest boy on the basketball team, and who was dating who. The passengers already on board are used to this 4:00 p.m. disturbance of peace and are seemingly oblivious to their surroundings. There is another young lady already on board. She was all dressed in her school uniform. Crisp white polo and khaki pleated skirt. You can tell her Mother (or Grandmother) was from the old school because even her socks looked ironed. She had cornrows at the top of her head that met with Shirley Temple curls in the back. You could see the Vaseline residue on her face that her mother (or Grandmother) shellacked her face with before she left for school this morning. What I found most unique about this girl is that she still had that child-like innocence in her eyes that a lot of her peers seem to have lost.

Approximately 5 minutes into the train ride the "ring leader" of the group of girls noticed the girl sitting across from them. She whispers to her friends and they laugh at the girl. The ring leader the yells, "Aye you ole Precious lookin', ugly, FAT bitch! Your Momma prolly be beating the shit outta you bitch! Your Daddy prolly hittin' dat joint too!" I looked at the girl. She did not turn her face to the "ring leader". She just bit the bottom right corner of her lip, clintched her fist and shook her leg in anxiety. "Aye FAT bitch, I'm talking to you!" the "ring leader" said. The girl kept her face straight forward and never turned around. She closed her eyes and tears began to roll down her cheeks. In her element of pride the "ring leader" fueled by the laughter of her peers, stood up and repeated her previous statement, but this time she yelled: "AYE you ole Precious lookin', ugly, FAT BITCH!" Your Mo'Nique lookin' Momma prolly be beatin' the shit out your FAT ass!" The girl opened her eyes, her whole body was trembling she stood up, turned around, and started punching the "ring leader".

To be young, gifted, and FAT.

• FAT: worse than being sick, or homeless, or jobless, or *dead*.


• FAT: Discriminated against more than a Black person, a Jew, or a Middle Eastern.

But to be FAT, Black, and a woman? Well, you might as well be dead, right? No one is going to love you, right?

19th Century Europe put us on display in a freak show, named us "Hottentot Venus" when our name was Saartjie Baartman. They raped us and in death put our genitals, brain, and skeletal remains on display in a museum. 1920's Harlem had us stereotyped in to the A-sexual caregiver who cooked, cleaned, sang, and watched after her white boss's children. We wore a rag on our head and a smile on our face. 21st Century Hollywood has us on the big screen unkempt, poor, sexually abused, physically abused, mentally abused, illiterate, HIV positive, and an unwed mother due to an incestuous relationship. Running through the streets of NY with a bucket of stolen chicken in our hand and a scowl on our face. We are barbaric, beasts, nasty, and ugly.

Respusha, Big Momma, Precious, A member of the Klump family.

We're not beautiful, right? We don't deserve respect, right?

We are mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. We are in relationships and we do get married. We are talented and educated. We are sexy.

The fact that we can walk down the street in a society/world that continues to belittle our existence speaks measures to our strength.

To be young, gifted, and FAT! Go ahead, it's funny right? I know you want to laugh...

*Exit carrying my purse*