Which made me the Jewish white girl at the party that wasn't dancing.

When I was dating the black man in college we went to a house party thrown by a couple of his friends. 

I was not the only white person there, but it is almost more uncomfortable when you are one of only two white people in that situation: it feels like everyone is expecting you to hang close to the other white person, and you will be disdained if you do, so you make a conscious decision to keep your distance so that it doesn't seem like you're afraid of black people. Awkward.

I remember feeling as if I was having an out-of-body experience, like I was watching myself and my boyfriend from above, hovering just below the popcorn ceiling. One of his black friends laughed and asked me why I didn't bring any white girls along with me to the party, which made the others within hearing distance laugh.

Actually, I should say it made the males within hearing distance laugh; the women looked at me like I was the human equivalent of a stopped-up toilet.

There was one girl that I had been friendly with before -- we shared a literature class -- so I went over to talk with her. She said a few words, but never really looked at me; she then excused herself to go to the bathroom, and when she returned she went to the other side of the room. Okay.

As the evening went on the music got louder, and eventually people were dancing. Which made me the Jewish white girl at the party that wasn't dancing.

Finally I said to myself the hell with it, and I started dancing, too. Which I quickly realized was a mistake: I was watched as if I was a dog doing tricks in front of someone who didn't like dogs.

I tried to ignore the looks and just be loose and in the moment, but I was now physically incapable of looseness, or even rhythm: I had the dance moves of a plywood board with menstrual cramps. When the current song ended -- Ice Cube's "It Was A Good Day" -- I went to the kitchen to pour myself a beer into the inevitable plastic cup.

In the kitchen there were several boys drinking; one of them held up a bottle and asked if I wanted some. And I started laughing.

He wanted to know what was so funny, and I knew I couldn't tell him: it was a bottle of Hennessy, and I couldn't help but think of the old Digital Underground video:

Now gather round
I'm the new fool in town
And my sound's laid down by the Underground
I drink up all the Hennessy ya got on ya shelf
So just let me introduce myself
My name is Humpty, pronounced with a Umpty
Yo ladies, oh how I like to hump thee

Although he probably was thinking he was more like Tupac:

Up late nights (c'mon) under the city lights
The Henn got me feelin right, I'm tryin to keep from swervin
She's so fine and she love Henn too
After a couple of shots she said, "I could do what I wanna do"
(That's right) We ain't sippin champagne (nah) we off the Henn-Rock
Alcoholics back at the liquor sto' cause we can't stop (can't stop)
And won't stop (we won't stop) all night long
'til the break of dawn, gettin it on, Hennessy

I politely passed on the offer, and soon found a quiet space in a back bedroom, where I pulled a book from the bookshelf and began reading. So, yes, I was the white Jewish girl at a black house party who was in the back bedroom reading “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine."