Yes, I am black: and that is not easy in the Canary Islands. I have been black since I was little and I can't help it. Before, it seemed to me that white people were different, but they have forced me to assume that I am the different one, despite having been born here like so many multicolored people.
It is not about having a different musical taste or not being congratulated, when I make an effort dancing, for assuming a certain genetic something that is associated with rhythm. I have to practice like anyone else to reach a good level of dancing, even if some don't believe it.
I am also a hard worker. With almost thirty years of contributions on my back and the same right as anyone to get injured, to be on sick leave, that does not stop me from being black. All the time. And that doesn't make me a lazy person, a movie, or any kind of fraud or crook. I am still the same hard-working black man as always, but, since I am flesh and blood, I have limits and I can break, like any child of a Christian: like any worker on this planet.
And even on sick leave, badly injured by wear and tear, I am still not colored or dark-skinned or any crap. I am still the same black man who was born and raised in this land, enduring strange looks and almost fear, all the time, from people who do not even dream of admitting diversity and who, when they talk about equality, do not even understand themselves.
Even so, the one who writes is Canarian and is black. Not by choice, but because I have no other choice. The same option that the rest have, who cannot change that either.
There are things that cannot be cured and there are things that can. So I hope that my society, the Canarian society, will cure any spirit of discrimination and extraordinary creation of social victims sooner rather than later. Because I am less guilty than them and have better feelings. For sure. Even if I'm black.
*Pedro González Cánovas, member of the Canarian Nationalist Alternative.
