A Girl Like Me

It's late and I'm searching through the online bookstore at Amazon.com. I'm in search of a book with someone I can relate to, someone that I can identify with. I'm not saying she has to be an exact match, but damn... can she have natural hair? Hyperpigmentation issues? At least, let her jeans gapped in the back like mine does.

One of my gripes with books classified under the "African American" genre, is that they are usually told from a narrow perspective. I appreciate a variety books, but I can not say I've been able to identify with many of the characters. Where are the books that tell the story of an American girl, which happens to be Black. As an American woman, with West Indian parents, looked upon as African American, my life is much more complex than the simple characters presented in many of these books.

Where is the girl that must be multiple things to different people on the same day, in one language, but in different dialects depending on her location? Where is the girl that was not taught about credit scores, yet must network with those that were taught to invest at an early age? How does she continue to manage the question, "Where are you from?", when experience tells her most people will either lose interest, assume too much, or looked upon her as a case study.

No one is addicted to or sells drugs in her family. This is not a slave narrative, or a story of colorisim. No street hustlin', no fuckin' random men, nor any rappin' to make it out da hood. She grew up with both of her parents. She is in a loving committed relationship with her husband, that although is not perfect, it's a positive one that requires real damn work that's not for punk-ass people.

Can this girl find her place in the corporate structure? How does a creative person continue to get up every day and puppeteer herself for a check, granting her a life deemed as successful to her parents. This girl works for multi-millionaires on a daily basis and knows how extremely far away from "financially successful" she is. Where does this girl find freedom to be herself? Stability to pay her bills? Time to please her husband? Balance to keep herself happy? Could she be an entrepreneur?

Is this story too boring to be told? It seems like the shelves are filled with all types of stories from other people. Spiritual walks, tales from a shop-a-holic, you name it, people have written about it, but where's the story with a girl like me?

Perhaps, this is the book that I need to write. If you know of a book like this, please let me know.