To the Hemingses from Your Brothers and Sisters

To the Hemingses of Monticello,

While it is natural for folk in every community to gossip about each other-- this has gone on too far, and I have taken it upon myself to inform y'all of your reputation. Just because your skin is bright and your hair isn't kinky, doesn't make you better than any of the rest of us Negroes. Massa may keep you off the fields and buy you fine dresses and nice jewelry, but make no mistake-- that don't make you white. If these white men that you all are so happy to lay with really thought of you as equals they'd free you and marry you. Y'all can smile all you want, but I know how the whites feel about you, and I know you know that you ain't even fooling yourselves. Cuz every time you go and wash their clothes, cook their meals, scrub their floors, and nurse their children you feel it. Don't go on thinkin that having some white blood is a blessing, cuz remember the devil was white. And I despise every drop of white that got put in y'all. 

-X




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