Racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial difference produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. These primary determinants affect everyone, everyday of their lives. I realized this when my family moved from southern California to Oklahoma in the summer of 1989. African-Americans had lived around and beside me the whole time I lived in California and I never thought anything about it. Yet when I moved to Oklahoma I discovered that many of the small towns around me were segregated. The color of a person skin determined how they were treated in society.
My first experience with racism is when I traveled to Henryetta, Oklahoma with my grandfather. We where traveling down the old highway when we came up to a sign that said "Niger's out by sun down." "What is a Niger?" I asked my granddad. He explained to me that a Niger was a person with black skin, someone that was a descendent of the African-Americans that were s
laves in the 1800's and early 1900's. He also explained to me that Oklahoma was a southern state and in most southern states people still thought of black people as a lower form of humanity. Kind of like how people in California think of Mexican-Americans. They are just here to live off of the white man's hard work and tax money. I just did not understand and thought he was telling me one of his tall tales again.
I did not understand anything that was going on. Then in the summer of 2000 I finally understand what everyone was talking about. My husband had a crippling wreck and we were forced to move into public housing. I felt so out of place, the only white woman in an apartment complex of blacks. Everyday something of ours was getting stolen, my children were getting beat up for their toys, and my heart was growing very cold. It started to get to the point that every black person I saw I wanted to kick the (you know what) out of. The person that did not understand racism was
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