Short Story

I have never experienced racism. However, I am not oblivious to those who have experienced racial confrontations. I have heard nasty comments such as “spic” and “wetback” and any other derogatory term that is out there used against my people. I have not always accepted or been proud of my family’s background. expand here.

When I link this story to my life, I can instantly think of a devastating event that occurred a decade ago. I haven’t experienced anything racist personally, but I know the people of my

At the age of six, one of my first memories is my mother walking down the street, holding my hand, and being verbally assaulted by a women, saying that people with my skin color do not belong

My first time I became aware of my race is the day I experienced racism. I must have been in the 1st or 2nd grade and I had two friends, Tiffany and Jaqueline. Tiffany was Aftrican American and Caucasion and Jaqueline was Asian American. One day Jaqueline asked me if I would come over to her house after school to play with her and I said I had to ask my mom. After convincing my mom, she drove me to Jquelines house and Jaquealine met us at her door. My mom was still skeptical because I had never been to her house and out parents had no actually met. So she asked Jaqueline to go get her mom and she did. I remember her mother 's face plain as day, she looked quite thrown off guard. But after a bit, my mother left and Jaqueline and I had a great time playing with her toys and her mother made us something to eat. After a few, my mom came to pick me up. The next day all three of us were playing and Jaqueline says to me "my mom said that you couldn 't come over anymore because you were black." I was thrown for a complete loop! I really could not understand what that meant. My parents never spoke to us about race up until that point. And I remember my exact words, "I 'm not black." Tiffany told me that I was and she said that she was half black. I mean, I was just completely unaware to the world of race. The really weird thing is, Jaqueline asked me another day to come over to her house and I said "I thought you said your mom

I have always thought and been taught that racism was a form of ignorance; people used stereotypes are the easy route, instead of looking at the individual outside of the whole. But Kelley’s thoughts on the topic rang very true to me—“Racism is knowledge…is learned behavior…” (7). When we are babies, we don’t notice or care if someone is of a different race, socioeconomic standing, sexuality; we just see them as people. It’s through repeated actions that we learn what separates us from the “other”. As a young child, my neighbor was my best friend. We played every day until I moved, but our families still kept in touch. It was until probably the 3rd or 4th grade that I realized he wasn’t like me, he had Down syndrome. Of course, that didn’t make a difference to me then or now, but I find it to be a striking example in my own life that as a young person, I was unable to see anything different about us, to me we were the same, we were

There were whole families of this different race that I hadn’t had much experience with. Of course, I didn’t see anything wrong with them, I was just unaware at how many people of the different color were in the same place at the same time. Being in the second or third grade, they try not to bring racism up nearly as much so I wasn’t fully knowledge on why they were different, and I was unaware that they got treated badly. Well I was just about to learn all about this simple, or not so simple word, racism.

During the interview, she mentioned how racism indirectly affected her mother, especially during a company picnic she attended with her mother and brother. “I remember going to her company picnic like ten years ago,” she said, “and all of her coworkers looking at us so funny because she was a single parent, and she’s walking down the street… with two black kids.” She further describes the reaction of her mother’s coworkers as not being related to her and her brother’s race, but states that “they were surprised my mother for procreating with someone who wasn’t white” (personal interaction, August 17, 2015). Her mother’s coworker’s evident feelings of discomfort and aversion agree with the actions that people may use to make other’s feel unwelcome or unvalued. As Johnson (2006) states, people’s reactions to individuals who are different may cause them to “stare as if to say, ‘What are you doing here?’ or stop the conversation with a hush they have to wade through to be included in the smallest way” (p. 55). Oppression and racism can manifest in more subtle forms than violence and outright prejudice, and through behaviors such as those described, individuals from privileged groups can cause both members of subordinate groups and those from dominant groups who stand by them to feel

As a young child I knew that racism existed but not to the extent that I understand now. I would get made fun of for being “extremely black” in elementary school despite it being a majority black school. As I grew older the name calling didn 't stop, I would find people of different races, including my own commenting in shock and surprise about how dark I am. “Damn she 's dark” one black classmate would snicker as I walked down the hallway. It never bothered me, I embraced my skin and its shade because I knew I was more than a color. But in America something as minor as your skin tone is one of the most defining factors in who you are or how you 're expected to be, shade dominates how others view you.

But them I realized that this is a problem that still exist to this day, this realization made me angry, almost outraged, it made me question how can this be allowed, this discrimination should be a crime. And finally, it made me sad that we live in a society where people are judge on the color of their skins instead of the content of their being.

My first recollection of race was daycare. I remember seeing many different skin and eye colors but didn’t understand how they were so much more different than me. I recall asking my mother why I didn’t have green eyes and how my skin color was different. She explained everyone is made differently that’s what makes them unique. My first recollection of racism was in third grade. The nurse came to the classroom to check the classroom for lice. Myself and a few other classmates weren’t checked properly because she didn’t want to touch our hair. Instead of bringing us out individually she called us by a group which made me feel different. Also, I was told it’s impossible to get lice because of the hair products used.

In a dining hall of about 200 people, I was the only dark-skinned person. I felt singled out, but I was so excited for the coming month that I shook it off and went on with my day. Within the first week, people addressed me as “pinche negro, morocho, muerto de hambre” (ni****, black kid, starving creature) and it was only then that I realized I wasn’t welcome. Maybe people resented me solely for being a good player, maybe they just couldn’t look past the color of my skin, or perhaps it was both. Nonetheless, I was left unsettled. I started to take things a bit more slowly. I didn’t try to show off as much; I simply played my part and nothing else.

Despite the fact that I was a Black girl, youngest of four children, and raised by a single mother in central Texas, I never felt different. My sense of sameness and security was ripped away on one Sunday evening I will never forget. During my junior year in high school, I was walking to the neighborhood corner store with two of my classmates, who were also Black. We rounded the corner down the main street, and noticed a rowdy

In this excerpt I will be touching on how Brayan, a 10 year old, was experiencing racism in a mostly white populated school in the late 2000s and early 2010s. I will provide examples from different times in his life when he experienced any racial behavior shown towards him or any other of his classmates during the period that he attended middle school. I will also provide outside examples of racism occurring in today’s world, with different sources. I will also explain how this experience helped shaped his view on different aspects of life and how it changed the way he approached life in general. His experienced help him become better as a person and as his life progressed he never showed a certain individual favoritism because he knows

During the lifespan of a single individual, racism has more than likely been observed at least once. Racism snarls and shows its nasty teeth like a vicious animal. Martin Luther King Jr. and, in modern times Ta-Nehisi Coates were able to shine the spotlight on the effects of racial prejudice. Both stood for equal rights and even though the rights were granted during King’s time, the problem of racism is still lingering. Coates writes a letter to his son titled Between the World and Me. Coates uses this letter as a way of advising his son of the things that he should be mindful of as an African American teen. King, on the other hand, wanted to write to all Americans to let each of them know the effects of racism and to argue for every person to have equal rights. King not only led the Civil Rights Movement, but also gave a very powerful speech titled “I Have a Dream” (Martin Luther King

This was the first time that I felt the wrath of racism. The ignorance, hate, and annoyance that I felt as an eight year old that day scarred me for a long time. When I went home and cried to my sister about it, she told me that there will always be people like that in this world, and that there will be three times that many kind people. Instead of feeling fear and hostility, this optimistic message pushed me forward to be more hopeful. As I grew older, I took all the adversities I faced, and fought against them. I did not just want to ignore my feelings and hide away because I knew that somewhere in the world, there were others fighting the same racist battle. Instead, I began to participate in campaigns against bullying and racism to make a true impact and change in the world.