“Sag your pants a little hank” or “why is your hat like that your black act like it”. Since the color of my skin is different than most of the kids in my school they have a stereotype of how I should act and portrait myself in public. But just because I am black doesn’t mean I don’t want to just be myself, and not what others think I should be.
In high school I wanted to fit in because I had come to a new school and wanted to put on a new personality. So I tried to wear the baggy shirts and pants, but that fad didn’t suit me. So I changed to wearing what I liked which was pants that wouldn’t fall off my butt and decent fitting shirts. But I still get the “Hank I thought you were black why is your shirt so tight”. That vibe that I got from people makes me cringe and I’d just brush it off and keep going like nothing happened. In my school there is also an area in the commons called the pit where the so called weird kids sit when to me everyone is equal and I don’t see what people are like on the outside but the inside counts. But in the pit a part where the black kids sit, and I sit in the pit sometimes, but when I go I get the same old “that’s the weird part of the commons don’t go down there”, but in reality what the kids don’t know is that they are really nice down there, and shouldn’t judge.
Now I have been going to this school for two years now and I’m starting to take some AP, 1 honors, and 1 advanced placement classes but whenever someone asks me for help in a particular class they always assume I’m in the “stupid” courses. So when they realize I’m actually not, their response is “wow finally a smart black person” and that statement makes me feel good for a second but then I think and he’s actually putting me down saying blacks are stupid.
When I look at myself in the mirror I feel that the color of my skin doesn’t make a person who they really are. But in the end there are always people who make those stereotypes and it still happens, the monitors are always starring at the “black” table thinking something’s wrong and whenever something goes wrong the first person everyone seems to blame is the black kid. I tried to bring the matter up when we felt like the monitors where giving us discrimination but they didn’t really seem to do too much about it.
Since some in school expect us to be the bad ones in the school I try to make sure all of us keep our act straight so we don’t get ourselves looked down upon even more. The choice of music I listen to gets looked down upon I like rap but not like some of the kids would expect of me. When a certain black student seems to look blacker than another does some students will always make you aware of it saying “you should start looking like them, they are truly black”.
I believe that while you are in school instead of worrying about what others think of you just do your best and focus on school. The real world is a lot different than what it is like in school and if you keep thinking about how popular you are and trying to fit in your are going to have a difficult time in life. Even though at times people may not like you because you aren’t fitting in with the crowd, they need to respect the fact that you aren’t like everyone else and you are unique in your own way. Looking back and looking at me now I see how I have changed I’m not too offended about what people say about my race and I know its not all true, I have my own ways in carrying how I act and not how people want me to be. “I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life”, Oprah Winfrey said this quote and she was hurt by these same things as a kid and her quote is showing that if you show excellence in what you do and your black it’s a good opportunity for you to stand out and prove people different.