A long time ago, in a school in Louisville…
I still remember sitting in elementary school and getting yelled at by this redheaded female teacher. I can’t recall her name, it was so long ago, but the fiery redhead hair still is burned into my memory. I was the only black kid in my glass that year, and I started to notice the difference in the way she treated me compared to the other children.
I was a little slower to learn than the other children, and I had to work harder to keep up with the class. (I had a mild case of stuttering and took speech classes.) Despite all that, she seemed to be angry with me.
Whenever I asked a question, I’d get this, “Sigh, what is it this time, James?” I noticed the hatred in her voice. Looking back at it now, this was my first case with racism, but I didn’t understand it. I still remember that woman; I just can’t remember her face.
I realized that portion of my childhood represents minorities, and namely the black community as a whole, and their problems with racism. While I still think racism is a huge problem, that redhead teacher in the back of our collective mind that’s telling us we’ll never become anything, but many of the problems within the black community are problems we can solve ourselves.
Obama shows that, if you work hard at your dream, you can make it. We shouldn’t the past hold us back to make the right changes for today. These are things that black community needs to adopt, if we really do want to make a change.
This is a chance to remember history, but not let it hold us back.
Voting in Obama was only one stage.
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3 comments:
Your old teacher sounds awful, but we have to use those prejudices against us to become stronger and wiser. You've already proved her wrong from what I can see.
Obama's victory is a first step in the right direction, but it's not going to be an easy ride forward.
As I was taught growing up, we have to be twice as good to succeed.
This story reminds me of a particular scene from the movie "The War".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZQIhQ7QxI
PJ: Yeah, I still remember her voice every time she said my name.
My mother told me the same thing when I was growing up
MC: Wow, that clip does come very close to the attude she had, from what I can remember.
(side note: I've had two people come up to me and tell me they remembered me from elementary school)
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