![]() I loved her colorful clothes and no-nonsense attitude. Penny stuck up for me when a couple of girls harassed me on the school bus. Other days she would come to school in cornrows with colorful beads on the ends. Some days, she would wear it loose with a plastic headband. Oh, what fun! It was so unexpectedly fine and easy to style. ![]() My friend Penny sometimes asked me to braid her hair. They were the best at Double Dutch jump rope and tried to teach klutzy me, but all I ever got to be was a turner. My closest friend was Jewish, but I enjoyed hanging out with the black girls. Looking more like my dad than my mom made it difficult for me to fit in. My mom, on the other hand, has that rich brown shade I so desired. Though my dad was born in Puerto Rico, he had a very pale complexion. The Puerto Rican kids all spoke Spanish and were various shades of brown. ![]() Most of the white kids in my neighborhood were Jewish and came from far wealthier families than my own. ![]() ![]() But if it makes me black, how can that be a bad thing? Then she would tell me that too much coffee is no good for you. My grandmother would look at me disapprovingly and say, “coffee will make you black.” Well, obviously it wasn’t working, so I would hand my empty mug back to my mom and ask for a refill. It made me feel pretty grown up that I was drinking coffee with my parents. When I was little, my mom used to give me my own mug with a little bit of Café Bustelo and a lot of sugar. ![]()
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