RESTAURANT CODE

RESTAURANT CODE SWITCHING IS LIKE

Denae Brown

“oh, absolutely!” it’s my line when politely agreeing to a white man’s demands, lemon water, hot! “of course!” suffocating my aints wannas and gonnas “this dish is more delicate” also known as this dish is small as fuck don’t get it welcome! to you what’s good? to them hiding my tattoos while my hoodie that says “I love my blackness and yours” is in my backpack in the back toning down my blackness to not offend we scream: pro-black is not anti-white we scream: black lives matter we scream: listen to my words we scream: stop killing us PLEASE at work we fake laugh at dad jokes we’ve heard a thousand times, we pretend your ancestors didn’t own mine we pretend like your “where are you from?” isn’t laced with “what’s your race?” and “do you belong here?” yes. yes, sir I do. do you?