Who Am I

My whole life I have identified myself as being a young African American male. My ethnicity/racial heritage is African American. I became aware of issues of ethnicity and race at a very young age. When I was young, I always knew that I was "different" from the rest of the kids that I grew up with. From preschool to the 12th grade, I was one of about 7 African American students that were in my school district. The school district I attended was a suburban school district, with the majority of the kids being white. In high school, my senior class was a class of 500. One of my buddies and I were the only African Americans out of the 500 students. Growing up through middle school and high school, There was no diversity in my schools growing up. Being African American in an ethnic majority environment kind of made me "different" in the eyes of the kids that were in my schools. If I had to kind of give a visual about how it was for me, if anyone has watched the television show "Everybody Hates Chris" that's how I can best summarize things for the moment. There were many things that I were taught by my parents about race, growing up. I can remember them telling me at a very young age, at the time that growing up was going to be difficult for me because of me being African American. My parents also told me to never let anyone degrade me or make me feel less than because I was African American. They also throughout my life gave me the right upbringing to rise above any negativity from society as a whole. These two principles I took to heart and I still do today. My family was the main outlet that gave me the insights about race and ethnicity at a young age. I didn't quite understand some of the things that they were telling me at the time, but as I grew up I started to see everything that my parents and family had told me about unfold right in front of my very own eyes. I agreed with what my parents told me before I actually experienced any form of racism because I trusted that they would not steer me wrong about it. As I grew up I began to experience many situations that would test the knowledge that was given to me. My views on ethnicity and race as a whole have changed greatly through my life experiences. I used to think that if any person who is a minority was always the "inferior" in society today. Through my life experiences i have concluded that I was wrong on every level. I believe that no race or ethnicity is "inferiors" in our society. In this day and age, there are peoples of many different races and ethnicity that shape our society politically, socially, and economically. Determination is the key to success in life no matter who you are. I believe that all races and people are the same. I think that as a society we lack the interest and respect for other peoples cultures on all levels. When respect and appreciation is not evident in a society, that's when the feeling of inferiority creeps in and can cause problems within a society. I believe that all people are the same no matter what ethnicity or race one might be; It's how us in society find those "differences" and try to create divisions among each other. As humans we all have emotions, struggles, obstacles, differences, similarities, goals and dreams. With those things in common, we all just need to appreciate each others races. I started to experience racism in middle school when I was about 11. The people I called "my friends" were the main people who would call me derogatory names because I was black. All of my "friends" at the time were white. I became an everyday event at lunch between the boys to see who could come up with the funniest "black jokes" to try and get me mad. I would talk to my teachers, principle, and others about the situations that I was experiencing at a young age. There was action taken, but this continued until high school. Growing up, my parents taught me how to be a strong individual and how to rise above ignorance. With them as my guides in my life and my own personal beliefs, I was able to overcome the race issues that I had to deal with in school. By high school, I seperated myself from those that I called "friends" because I was able to see things for what they were. Not once did I ever comment back or make racial jokes back, I just "brushed it off". In high school, out of those 500 kids, I was friends with every single one of them. I made a vow to myself that I would not be like one of my "friends" in middle school and try and bring someone down to try and make myself cool for a group of people. With that vow I can honestly say by my senior year I had no enemies within my whole entire class of 500 students. Some kids I knew personally, and some just passing in the halls and saying "hey" to every morning. By the time I graduated high school, I was voted on numerous awards given by my class of 500, best smile, best personality, best musician, and prom king. What I took from all my experiences is that every time somone tries to knock me down, I will get up and fight two times harder. The negativity that I experienced only made me better and wiser in the end. Us as people, we are the same. If we all had the same skin or not skin at all, would we be the same people that we are today? Would our thoughts and conception of ourselves be different?

Marcus Anderson (Post 1)