<p>What’s interesting for me is that most of the “Oreo” comments I’ve gotten have been from other Black people. I will very rarely hear anything at all from my white friends, or the white kids in my class, but the Black kids are always the first ones to call me an Oreo or say that I’m “Asian on the Inside”.</p>
<p>My first (memorable) experience with racism was also from a Black person. I was walking with my (white) friend and she made a point to yell out of her car at a red light “You aint white honey, you black!”.</p>
<p>My experience is probably different from many since my school (a magnet school) is split in thirds almost (35% white, 35% black, 20% asian, 10% hispanic), and it is in a large urban area.</p>
<p>The one thing I absolutely HATE that I get from non-black kids all the time is “Oh, you’ll get in there. You’re black.” Umm… no. Being “black” does not trump the classes I’ve taken, my ACT scores, my extracurricular activities, and my awards. It also does not cover up some of the less than stellar grades I’ve received in some classes. If I get in to any school it’s because of my own ability. Not because of my race.</p>
<p>I’ve been through this phenomenon countless times in my academic career.
Probably started in first grade. I was five years of age. The teacher had the gall to suggest I be moved back a grade because, apparently, my blackness put me at a distinct disadvantage. Mother removed me from that virulent private school. I was homeschooled mostly till the 6th grade.
Throughout middle school many teachers refused to take me seriously. My best teachers were Asian and Hispanic. The latter accused me of plagiarism my 8th grade year. I was writing on a high-school level. She eventually got used to seeing a black kid kick butt academically. I loved her as a teacher. Still do.</p>
<p>In both my freshman and sophomore years of high-school, my English teachers accused me of plagiarism.
Ridiculous.
I spent sophomore through senior year at a school ranked second in the state.
I’ll be the first to admit the ranking is superficial. The egomaniacs contained in this brick edifice are astounding in their blatant stupidity. White peers have used the n-word causally, teachers and students speak ill of the other high-schools in the district, which happen to be mostly black, “ghetto” to these ignoramuses is synonymous with black, and the list goes on.
White girls openly deride black girls as all being ghetto and vociferous. Black guys have it easier, but are often treated as pets. They are ridiculed as well.
Never ends.
I’ve questioned applying to Ivies and other top-tiers because of life experiences in all white settings.
It’s hell.
I’ve recently graduated and now I must take a gap year to stabilize myself, to have some respite from the homelessness I’ve endured.</p>
<p>I recall reading about Dawn Loggins (homeless and poor, kind of like me) and how she made it into Harvard and almost taking pride in her story.</p>
<p>Then I came to and realized, hey, she’s white. She had support. She could got to her white teachers/counselors. Can you imagine the outcome of me approaching some haughty white person asking for assistance my sophomore year when living out of my car (well, my mother’s car, lol)?
Hilarious.</p>
<p>Not to give an excuse to those who make statements like that but some of the…lets say “masses” have not been exposed to a large sample size of minorities to make a good assessment. They may have formed thoughts based what is on TV or the 2 or 3 minorities that they encountered in their life.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t get up in arms about what is said or acted out. Being a Math major and black at a PWI definitely had me receiving looks (usually when taking junior/senior courses with no one from a previous course attending) but I welcomed it.</p>
<p>I had the mindset of “Yep, I am here with you in Advanced Calculus…and gonna sit by YOU since you are staring the most.”</p>
<p>“Not to give an excuse to those who make statements like that but some of the…lets say “masses” have not been exposed to a large sample size of minorities to make a good assessment. They may have formed thoughts based what is on TV or the 2 or 3 minorities that they encountered in their life.”</p>
<p>The same can be said of minority students who think they have experienced a large sample of caucasian behavior, when in fact their experience is also very limited. Some white are guilty of being surprised about accomplished AA students, because they’ve never known any. That’s known as ignorance! I’m OK with them being surprised, as long as they use the experience to update their catalog of what it means to be black.</p>
<p>In alexissss’ case, she had a variety of experiences where non-black teachers expected less of her, and recently classmates who all seemed to fit into one mold. But I wonder if she noticed the few white kids who didn’t fit in, who didn’t automatically belittle her.</p>
<p>She is expecting that all predominantly white settings will be like this, but again this is out of ignorance. She has experience several such settings, but they are still a small sample. She may still end up feeling out of place in an Ivy League school, simply because she is anxious about the experience. There will probably be some students wherever she attends who won’t “accept” her, but that should be their problem. You don’t need to be friends with everyone on campus, you need to have a core groups of friends. If you expect them to be elitist or racist (or whatever other expectations you have), you are likely to read those expectations into everything they do.</p>
<p>Ignorant is the more accurate word. You’re the one reading the negative into it. There’s nothing wrong with being guarded, but your attitude toward caucasians is no diferent then what we experience from them. If it is wrong for them to base their judgement of you on their limited experience with a small sample of blacks, it is equally wrong to judge them on a similarly insignificant sample.</p>
<p>Ignorance is defined as a lack of knowledge and experience. That definition seems to fit. Being guarded doesn’t make you ignorant. But being ignorant does cause you to be guarded.</p>
<p>But there is. Being guarded and cautious is not the same as being insulting and antagonistic.
These people I have dealt with know their assumptions of blacks are false. Many of them have been in contact with intelligent blacks and yet they refuse to change their stances.
And yes, I did notice the few kids who did not seek to insult me every opportunity that presented itself. And did I comment to them constantly on how they were the smartest white kids I know? No. I simply enjoyed their company.
And besides, much of the hate I received was mostly from jealousy, not innocent ignorance. </p>
<p>Please do not assume that I’d somehow make my experience in yet another non-black setting unsavory because of my disposition. I give every person, white or black, a chance before writing them off as rude or insulting. </p>
<p>Finally, to even suggest these bratty kids were “guarded” is asinine. If this were so, then why were they almost obsessed with blacks? Constantly hanging around them and laughing at the way they talk and act.</p>
<p>So ironic how Alexisss hates that blacks are put down by others, but on another thread, she puts down other blacks… which is worse? Whites who think less of us/assume that all that we can aspire to is "baby mama or inmate #…? OR blacks who think they are better than their own kind b/c they have been given the benefit of a good education and as we older folks say “home training??”</p>
<p>One again, Alexissss, you misunderstand - and make yourself look even more ignorant.</p>
<p>You called yourself guarded, I simply stated that being guarded does not make you ignorant, but that ignorance is often a reason for being guarded. You have experience with only a small subset of “white culture” and perhaps expect most whites to treat you the same way. You view the few that did not insult you as being the exception. Yet, it is not OK for the kids who did insult you to think of you (or any other intelligent blacks they met) as the exception. They may not know their assumptions are false. What we think they should know, and what they do know are often not the same thing. You don’t know whether they have been taught at home that those few intelligent blacks are an anomaly or not - they may very well have been taught that and more. </p>
<p>Your experience in school may have more to do with being home schooled than your race. You didn’t stay in the school when you were 5, so you can’t say for sure that the teacher was wrong - perhaps you had other disadvantages in that particular setting. You accuse teachers of not taking you seriously - because they were concerned that it appeared you might be plagiarizing. Were there other kids writing at that level in your classes who were not accused of plagiarizing? Any good teacher is going to question the writing of a student who writes “too well” whether black, asian, hispanic, or white.</p>
<p>I do think your “disposition” may in fact make it difficult for you to fit in at a place like Harvard or Yale. But I also think you disposition might make it difficult at a HBCU too. When you are prepared to look at another person’s behavior from THEIR perspective, rather than judging them based on your own perspective, then perhaps you will be ready to fit in.</p>
<p>I love threads like this. Let’s deconstruct some of the arguments above, starting with CTScoutmom’s. </p>
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</p>
<p>No. Ignorance is not the reason for being guarded. Experience, knowledge of systems of oppression, the recognition of the inherently racist nature of American society, and countless instances of microaggressions of racism that vivified the institutional racism of education in general are all reasons for being guarded. </p>
<p>Often, the above attitude (being guarded) is viewed as reverse racism. There is all the difference in the world between saying, “If you don’t want me, I don’t want you” (which is what some proponents of black power [in the minds of some, reverse racism] have in effect been saying), and the statement, “Whatever you do, I don’t want you” (which is what racism declares). It is, in other words, both absurd and immoral to equate the despairing response of the victim with the contemptuous assertion of the oppressor.</p>
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<p>Of course not. That’s the beauty of institutionalized racism. It becomes internalized, then is justified in a roundabout fashion.</p>
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<p>See? Roundabout justification of something that does not make sense. I was placed in ESL classes in kindergarten because I was not born in this country. I spoke and wrote English just fine. Racism creates its own disadvantages. </p>
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<p>Actually, no. They won’t.</p>
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<p>Like hell it will. Keeping things real will get you in trouble in general - Harvard and Yale are no exceptions. Alexissss, if you come through to Harvard one day, hit me up. We need more people like you.</p>
<p>Both attitudes are the product of an unwillingness to acknowledge systems of oppression. One attitude is deprecatory, while the other indulges in the silliness of the ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps’ mentality.</p>
<p>Perhaps. There is something to be said for being guarded after experiencing a certain level of hostility from a particular group of people, though.</p>
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<p>But there’s the rub. They do not base their judgment of individuals off their individual experiences. Instead, a hodgepodge of stereotypes thrown at them from all quarters regarding the ways African-Americans and blacks in general behave help them form their judgment of African-Americans and blacks before they meet any. A meeting will turn into a confirmation of their beliefs; racism employs circular logic, after all. </p>
<p>We all have internalized racism and oppression, and we have to call it out of each other, regardless of how oppressed we think we are. If alexissss is employing similar circular logic, then that’s a point of growth, not a reason to say that s/he will not fit in at a certain institution.</p>
<p>And here’s some further reading for those of you interested in learning more about culturally sensitive teaching, which is lacking in many institutions:</p>
<p>I see it as lift yourself up by making others look bad/the crabs in the barrell mentality… I have a dd14(age 16) and I have always taught her that she should respect everyone. No matter where they come from, what they look like etc… she comports herself as a lady as all times and has a special presence about her. Her teachers/friends respect her for WHO she is and NOT because she puts others down, she is a friend to everyone… and yes, she is a high honors student, the only black in her AP class this year… A little empathy/kindness for others can go a very long way. Utter disgust and hatred does not.</p>
<p>haha this thread is my life story… i don’t let it get to me unless people pull that “you’ll get in, your black” yeah all my hard work means nothing because I’m getting into school because of my race right?</p>
<p>Are you assuming that I feel I am better than my fellow blacks from what I posted on my own thread?
Because your assumption is asinine.
Please read my response again for I am not reiterating my stance. </p>
<p>“Given”? I was given nothing. I worked for the little I possess now.</p>
<p>How does my being home-schooled affect my experiences? The teacher in my hearing relayed to my mother how I was unable to handle the curriculum because of my blackness.
Also, I was not wholly kept out if school. Whenever I was put into some private school between the span of years from age give to the sixth grade, I asked mither to remove me as a result if racist comments. </p>
<p>Also, I never explicitly stated these children were wrong in thinking of me as an exception. It is their response and filthy attitude that I have an issue with. It is the need to loudly proclaim their beliefs that blacks are all idiotic that I loathe. </p>
<p>And yes, there were other students writing as I was. Asian and white, only. As for the accusation of plagiarism my sophomore year, my English teacher was blatantly rude. She would frequently belabor the point of the education gap twixt blacks and whites in my school. She accused me of copying SparkNotes when she could not find even one similarity in my fifteen page report. She overlooked white students who’d copied and pasted whole paragraphs from SparkNotes! She only gave me two weeks to do what the rest of the class had a whole summer to accomplish.
When adopting a child from Africa she made many hurtful remarks about the child before she even arrived in America. Even now this teacher tells her adopted child she’ll send her back to live in a hut if she misbehaves.</p>
<p>What kind of person sits and allows herself to be degraded whilst seeking to ascertain her tormentor’s point of view? Is this effective? I do not have the mental stamina to sit and analyze why someone is attacking me. I frankly do not care to know how he or she was raised, I simply want him or her gone from my presence. </p>
<p>I find it interesting how, out of every post here, you decide to make mine a foundation for your ludicrous argument. </p>
<p>Finally, I authored my post in keeping with the thread topic. I will decide ultimately whether or not I am a match for whatever school I choose to attend.</p>
<p>Are you implying that I gain credence from the downfall of blacks? Do you know anything about me? How many times I’ve tried to help only for them to become jealous and call me “white”?
You speak of your daughter as though her upbringing is superior to that of mine. As if my mother has not instilled the same values in me.
I can guarantee your daughter has not had the experiences I have.
I like how you point out that she is respected and is such a lady. Are you intimating that I do not receive respect, that I am not a lady?
If so, you are partaking in that which you have rudely admonished me not to.</p>
<p>Lol, I get this too and I live in the UK. I go to a very selective high school with about 100 students in each year, I’m the only black guy. I get it from my white “friends” every once in a while but I’ve never experienced this from my friends who are from an ethnic minority.
I’ve learnt to ignore it and not let it get to me because I know that they aren’t being offensive on purpose or anything, though I do find it quite funny how I’m most likely the only black person they actually know on a personal level. It’s all to do with the media and how they portray blacks, people get these perceptions from what they see on TV and they think that all black people act in the same way. It’s the same for all races/creeds or other social groups.
For example, the massive anti- muslim sentiment following 9/11, where people thought that all muslims were terrorists. It’s this stereotyping that ****es people off and my muslim friend needs to endure racial slurs on a regular basis. </p>
<p>At the same time, however, I routinely get tormented by the black students who go to the less “academic”, for want of a better word, school for being a “coconut”. I’d say this is even worse because they are purposefully trying to offend me for “learning instead of getting p***y” unlike themselves. Here, they are trying to conform to the stereotype of blacks which I’d say is even worse than stereotyping others. Instead of trying to overcome these stereotypes, as I try to do, they would rather take the easy way out and do exactly as expected of them.</p>
<p>If anything, these experiences only really inspired me to work even harder so on results day, they’ll wishing they had actually put some work in and I’ll just be laughing.</p>
<p>My motto: “Do your best… F**k everyone else”</p>
I loved her as a teacher. Still do.</p>