“Look, a Negro!” and Vegan Cheese Heaven: Sistah Vegan in Europe Part II

Okay, when I tasted this cheese, it was from half opened package that was in my mother in law’s refrigerator. It was marked with the label vegan, so I ate it thinking it was vegan.

But it couldn’t be.

It tasted so damn good. Like no other vegan cheese I had ever tasted before.

I was convinced my mother in law had used an old vegan cheese package for her real dairy cheese.

But then I opened a new package of one and tasted it and could not believe it. It was vegan, but it tasted like cow dairy.

Why don’t I have access to this in California. Sorry to you Daiya lovers out there, but Wilmersburger rules!

On a different, note…. I’m kinda getting sick of being stared at in München these days. Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive (the ‘safe’ term to use when you are a black woman calling out people’s racialized curiosities), but damn. Didn’t yo mama ever teach you not to stare at people!? It’s rude and impolite...

…perhaps [white] folk in Germany aren’t taught that? I mean, there is ‘glancing’ at a person that you are curious about for micro second and then there is STARING for 10, 20, 25 seconds. Yea, I got the afro, but that can’t be it. And yea, I’m pushing around my “lighter than me” babies in the stroller and perhaps there is some ‘confusion’ as how it’s possible that these babies could be mine? Just really weird stares that give the vibe of not ‘innocent’ curiosity, but stares that give the energy “you are not one of us, racially or nationally; you seem out of place”. This 9 or 10 year old girl on the train the other day would not stop staring at me FOREVER. I do not remember experiencing this in München when I was here in Summer 2010. I was like, “Yes, I’m a negro!” I am not making this up! (Okay, I am making up the part about telling her, ‘Yes, I’m a negro.’ )

By the way, since it’s hard to read tone here, I am taking these observations lightly. I’m not traumatized, upset and nor is my stay here being ruined by being stared at by grown ass adults and their children. I am attempting to be humorous. Hey, maybe they are like, “Wow, what a drop-dead gorgeous Negro,” instead of the whole Fanonian spin I have given it.

Plate of vegan cheese during Christmas Eve dinner. A sample has been sent to be analyzed so I can finally accept that I have been duped and that it is real cow dairy cheese…. results will come in next week.