My tan story. A gift to Obama.

I never gave the president a gift, so I'll give him something very personal that I was planning to hold onto until the day I wrote my memoir.

After I graduated from college I did what most kids do and grabbed the first job that came along. I was a very conscientious person and for that reason, I probably stayed on the job longer than I should have. After four years I knew I needed higher education to improve my options so I applied for graduate school in Miami and was accepted.

There was one small problem to overcome first. My lease was up and I still had a few months time to kill before the school year began. I figured I would stay on the job until the last weeks in order to build the kitty to prepare for the day that I became a student again.

So in the interim I divested myself of all my furniture because I knew there wouldn't be any place for the bulky items in the family condo in Miami. And I arranged to rent a room from one of the clerks in the office. She was a very nice lady with a happy disposition so I figured we would get along just fine.

I knew she was recently divorced and had a young child, but these things were not a concern because I knew that my stay would be a short one. As I was moving my scant furniture into her house I couldn't help noticing how her young blonde daughter was quietly observing me. Whether I was in the living room or putting my clothes in the drawers, she was there watching through those two pool blue eyes. She waited for a moment when there was no one around to break the ice.

In a very innocent voice she asked, "Are you white or are you black?"

Her forwardness was a bit startling but I assumed that I was the first Latina she had ever met. I thought I was being clever when I gave her my response. "I'm neither. I'm tan."

The child's face beamed at my response. Sticking her hand in the air and splaying her fingers she proudly announced, "I'm five."

That was it. The question of race was over because she had found common ground.