Growing up I did not experience racism. I played with children of all different kinds of backgrounds and never thought twice about it. Race was never a factor with whom I played with; class was neither. Being dark skinned or having green eyes did not have an effect on how fun someone was to play with. I did not mind if someone lived in a big house or if they lived in a small apartment; it was all about fun. Pre-k through second grade this was firmly the truth, but around third grade I began to feel differently about people. At this grade I began to play more sports, and I disliked playing with kids not as good as me. Team sports like football, baseball, and basketball became more competitive and serious natured. Selecting who was on your team was never easy, but it was something that had to be done. A tendency began to occur that was very obvious: the same kids were chosen, and therefore the kids that did not get selected were divided from the others.
This is the precise moment when lines were drawn and you were on one side or the other. Either you were good enough or you were not. Race or money could not help you play better and so they were nonexistent in our minds. All that mattered was how f
bell hooks says, “At Stanford, I encountered for the first time a black diaspora” (144). For me high school was more of the same but at a greater level. Football was serious business now and not just a game. North Shore High School was one of the elite football schools in Texas and was always expected to have a superior team. The jam packed stadium every week was only a minor indicator of how great the community felt about the team. Players were well known to every one including priests and congressmen. They were looked upon with a greater esteem than “regular” students, and were commonly treated better. No one cared about what you did in middle school anymore; it was all about here and now. For me this meant that I was nobody now; only a skinny unknown freshmen. I had to start all over again and climb the ladder to the top. Thankfully I had friends that would climb along side me.
Example Essays Home
