My first notice of the “Oreo” was the primary antagonist from the movie A Soldier’s Story, a movie I watched with my mom and had some discussion with her about. I often watched some of the older race related films with her when I was a child, and she would provide cultural and social analysis of the film as we watched, and she explained that character to me when we watched the movie.

I was very young and didn’t entirely understand all of it but there was the sheer irony of kids calling me an Oreo in my teens, for speaking standard English or getting good grades, when I probably had a greater degree of Black consciousness (via my Black Panther mother) than any of my bullies. I wanna laugh at this but can’t quite yet.