My issue is race. I feel black people nowadays have to conform to this one ideal. We all have to be the same. We all have to be hard and ghetto and listen to only one genre of music which would be Rap and R&B. And if one of us steps out of the mold we're not black anymore. Well, that's dumb. When did music determine your racial background? Or a musical instrument? I can't believe the dumb things people say when you're doing something different. I mean, it would be ok if music and how you dress and act actually determined your race, but the last time I checked it was your genes that determined your color. And I think anyone who chooses to believe in this fabrication is ignorant. Isn't this what the Civil Rights Movement was about, equality? Didn't Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak of diversity and how we should hold hands at the table of brotherhood? Well how are you supposed to do this when we try to conform to this idea. Not conforming doesn't make you have less pride in your race but it's helping make a window of opportunities for your race. Well, as for me, I'm stepping out of the box and going forward to be who I am, and if people disagree, f**k them. I believe this will bring me closer to the goal that god ordained for me. And doing this doesn't mean I'm selling out my race, but it means I'm not selling out who I am.

Kamanda Ndama