In the fourth grade, I transferred from a predominately white school to a predominantly black school.

I was as pale as some of the white students, and my hair, while nappy, was sandy, almost blond in the right light. The hair color and skin tone were both passed down from my blue-eyed mother. If that wasn't bad enough, I also "talked white" and, as a result, the remainder of elementary school was sheer hell.

"High Yella," "Red Bones," "Salt 'n' Peppa," "Half Breed." I've heard them all. I remember one lunch bell when the chief meanie counted heads then boldly announced, "We have 10 and 1/2 half black people and two and half white people." I was threatened with physical violence, received harassing phone calls, and according to the rumors they started, had serviced every male in the school by graduation.

There is nothing on this earth like getting "mean-girled" but a bunch of sistahs on a mission.