A Black & White World. (Extra Credit)

I attended the Department of English teach-in about whiteness and social justice this past Thursday. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. I didn’t expect for it to be an open discussion. I thought the speaker was going to come in tell us about his research on the subject and share his personal opinions – but I’m happy he didn’t. The opening YouTube video clip he showed titled “Book of Mormon” definitely set the tone of the discussion.  The statements that the speaker made about how a group of white people think that they can understand an environment that they know nothing about and understand African better than the Africans was very puzzling. These statements opened up the discussion about race and how no one truly knows how it feels to be a race if they are not. For example, I can’t tell anyone how white people feels since I’m not white. This sparked a central question during the discussion at what age did you become aware of that you weren’t white? When I was six years old I finally realized I wasn’t white. At this age color meant nothing to me. I have always attended schools with me being the only black girl in the classroom. My older cousins (2-3 years older than me) did not and would always call me ‘white’ girl as a joke. They always joked around and say comments, “Like Shay you know your not white right? Your hair will never be straight like the white girls” and more comments along those lines. So I went back to school and observed the classroom and realized I didn’t look like the students in my class and that I wasn’t white. As a young child color meant nothing to me, so realizing that my skin didn’t match my friends made me more aware of my surroundings and the color of their skin.