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“I told them why I liked you, well… Michelle. That her race didn’t matter to me. Dad said I should be concerned about that. He wanted to know what I would do when I faced opposition from my extended family and friends.”
“Who cares about what they think? They either get with the program or get left behind.”
“He… also said I was naïve to believe I could ignore the hierarchy of life.”
“What hierarchy?”
Luke glanced away.
She insisted. “What did he mean, Luke?”
“In his opinion,” Luke demonstrated the levels with his hands, “whites are at the top. Then Asians. Hispanics. And then blacks.”
Ashanti sat in sickened silence. What could she say that would make his statement any less racist?
“Ash?”
“Is that really what they think? That you’d be marrying down if you married black?”
“Yes. He meant exactly that.” Luke stabbed the steering wheel with his hand. “You see why I can’t allow this to continue? I’ve never made my parents so angry. They won’t accept Michelle, no matter what I do. There’s no use putting you through that kind of torture.”
“We can’t just give up.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said, Ash?” Luke raised his voice. “Didn’t you see the way my mom acted? She cried. Despite all the horrible things they said, they’re my parents.”
“And you’re a twenty-five-year-old man who lives in his own apartment and manages his own business,” Ashanti fired back. “When do they respect your decisions?”
“That’s not how it works.”
“Stop with that bull excuse,” she snapped. “Things don’t change if you sit silently and watch injustice happen.” She tapped her foot against the floor mat. “Bring me to your next family event.”
“No.”
She pretended not to have heard him. “I’ll start learning Mandarin in my free time. I’m a journalist. It’s always good to learn another language.”
“Ash, I mean it. I’m done.”
She opened her door. “If I don’t hear from you in three days, I’m going to the café and telling Uncle Eddie we’re dating.”
“You wouldn’t.”
She slipped onto the sidewalk and leaned down so she could see him. “See you later, Luke.”
“Ashanti!”
She walked faster and quickly opened her front door before he could chase her. When she was safely inside, Ashanti flipped on her light so Luke would know she was alright and then sank against the door.
The harshness of his parents’ words ballooned over her head, pressing her into the ground.
Did all Asians in Belize think that way? Were they silently judging her, deeming her less than compared to a Spanish girl or a white girl simply because of her darker skin tone?
Was there something wrong with her?
Ashanti thought highly of herself and her accomplishments—she’d graduated high school through to university with honors. She earned a job at a prestigious newspaper, one of the few still running in Belize. She did her best to be a good person and a contributing member of society.
But there were moments when her ‘black’ would come out, as her Grandma Flora used to say. Moments when she got loud, obnoxious or ignorant in response to a situation that frustrated her. Moments when her neck would roll and her head would bob.
She was black, an incarnation of everything associated with the word.
