"The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter The Juice"

It was the job that a million girls would kill for, at least a million black girls. And, up until a couple years ago, one that I would have thought was an impossibility, even for me. So, out of a million girls only 25 showed up. That is, only 25 girls showed up for the job that a million "black" girls would kill for, and only 10 were chosen. Yours truely, not one of them.

It wasn't a great job. Not a cool internship at a hip fashion publication, not the chance to be on the cover of Ebony, or Jet, or the chance to work alongside the business leaders of Black Enterprise Magazine. No...none of those. It was the chance to be a Disney Princess. The first black character that's not a lion, and old man singing songs of the south, or some fairy sidekick. It was a real live actual, come to life Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle of a princess. And why did yours truely not get the job? ...One can only speculate (this is the part where I clear my throat...uuh humm).

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a mermaid or fall through the rabbit hole like Alice, in Wonderland. I wanted to be Alice in Wonderland, "and if she's not a real person, then how come I took a picture with her on vacation?" This I would ask my mother. Little did I know that she was trying to protect me from the underlying truth, with that ridiculous make believe person excuse.

The real truth was that Alice and I were lacking in certain similar features. It's true. I can't complain there, but Princess Tiana and I...it's like we were separated at birth. She's from New Orleans, my grandmother is from New Orleans. She hangs out with frogs, I married a frog(inside joke), she's brown, I'm brown, or...according to Disney I'm sorta brown. Apparently, in order to be Princess Tiana you have to be black, not brown. I guess that guy who typed up my birth certificate got it wrong.

On the plus side, since I'm not black. I guess I can be Alice in Wonderland after all. (smile)