I am a biracial boy and I never thought my school would be a racist and a uncomfortable community. I was one of the only African American kids in my whole school. On my first day at the school I felt I was obligated to be someone I wasn’t.
During class sometimes the teachers would blame me for my friends behavior. Some of the teachers emailed my friends parents and told them I make it hard for them to not talk, and that I am a bad influence. There was one instance where an Asian kid punched me because he knew I was gonna end up reacting. I couldn’t hit him back because I knew what type of situation I was in, so I cussed him out, and the school was going to suspend me for threatening him after he punched me.
A couple days later my parents went to the school and since my parents made sure they took it off, the school was targeting me for every little thing I did. I truly believe if I was to kill an ant in front of the principal he would feel some type of way. Not just that but my friends were doing dumb stuff on the bus back from a field trip, and the teachers first reaction was to blame me, even though my friends admitted to what they did. The school didn’t let me go on the end of the year trip because apparently when they accused me of happened they say “I was being negative”. Don’t ask me how that makes sense, I still try to not think about it.
It’s not only the school’s fault though. The way my mom got me into the school is because she made it seem like she was the only family I had and I came from a ‘terrible school’, which wasn’t the case. So after that the school had this idea that I was some disadvantaged black boy before I even met any of them. Although I had many bad times at the school, ,l I had a good experience with different types of kids and I learned a lot about self awareness. My advice to African American kids that are in the same situation that I was in, my advice is talk to your parents and stand up to whoever is mistreating you.
I’m Damani for Bay Talk Friday on Youth Radio Raw for this commentary and more visit www.youthradio.org.