what was your first race-related memory and how old were you?

Question

i was 10 years old and i walked into a variety shop owned by an asian family. at the same time one white girl walked in with me. i just went in to look at the stuff and one of the people who worked there kept following me around and watching my every move. the white girl was not followed at all. i was too young to understand why they were treating me this way...

i still have that problem today. im a fair skinned hispanic and i have friends who are of color and when i walk into some stores they do the same.

whats your story?

Answer 1

I was 11 when my family moved from a large, metropolitan area to a very small town. I was the only Black girl in my new classroom. I tried to make friends with a couple of girls by sitting with them at lunch. They asked me a lot of questions, but they seemed pretty friendly. About two days later, when I went to sit with them, one of the girls told me they weren't sitting with me anymore because I was a ni****.

No more than three weeks later, the principal called me into her office telling me that I was not allowed to go to lunch because I put gum in one of my classmates hair. The girl who called me a ni**** told the principal I put gum in her hair and threatened to beat her up. The rest of the school year, I spent lunchtime sitting in the office. My teacher told the principal he thought the girl was lying and that I was a good student. My parents came up to the school requesting proof that this girl had to cut gum out of her hair. The principal told them she didn't have to do that and that she could have me arrested for what I'd done. Obviously, I hadn't put gum in the girl's hair. I was trying to make friends and understand my new environment. At the time it wasn't clear to me what had happened. More than ten years later I ran into good old Mr. Rotter, the teacher who tried to defend me. We had a talk and he admitted to me that the principal thought all Black students were trouble makers. He apologized to me for not doing anything more, but I told him it was okay because that made me who I am today.

Funny thing is, I know it was the girl's mother who told her not to associate with me anymore. Parents have such an amazing impact on their childrens lives and they should be more careful than to instill such hate.

Answer 2

i remember getting beat up by a Filipino kid when i was in 2nd grade cause he didnt like me being in his country. My mom grew up in the south during the 50-60's and told me crazy stuff how people were so racism wasnt tolerated in our house. I remember when i was little i would watch Solid Gold and i was so in love with this Black woman that had the sexiest braids my mom thought it was funny. But u must have grown up in LA too since thats common their. My friends would get followed all around and they wouldnt say nothin to me.
"Racism is an illness R U sick?"

Answer 3

When I was a little girl (about 6 years old) the kids used to call me "big lip" White kids and a Black kids. LOL I think I cried about it once. At the time I didn't see it as a racial thing but now...yeah. It hasn't scarred me for life or anything. I actually love my full lips and so have my many admirers. ;-) At least I won't have to get collagen injections anytime soon.

Answer 4

I see you published in R&S too, that is going to likely be exciting to work out how the solutions variety... good call no longer posting in Politics... besides, the guy for sure has some race/subculture hatred if he desires to kill all of them, that's no greater desirable than the violent non secular human beings. in spite of the undeniable fact that there is quite some violence inspired in the Qu'ran and the Bible, so that is in basic terms organic human beings could use those so-called "holy doctrines" to justify their violent urges and yearning for skill and cultural dominance. the concern is lack of expertise; if we greater desirable prepare the human beings, there'll actual be a dramatic drop in the quantity of believers of the contradictory bronze-age religions, and we are able to flow in the direction of a greater unified, non violent and enlightened international. BQ: unusual Fruit - Billie trip, guy that's a effective song... "Evil" - Stevie ask your self, i'm going to edit if i think of of greater desirable ones.

Answer 5

I remember that there was a little girl from India in my school. She wore the bindi dot on her forehead, and I thought she was born with it!

I also remember, in the same grade, one kid came to school and sang "jingle bells" with new racist lyrics that included the N-word. I had no idea what they meant, I had never heard that word before. I went home and sang it to my dad, who jumped up out of his chair just ragingly pissed. He gave me a long lecture on how that word is very hateful and what it means. I was crying, and told him that I didn't know. That's the first and last time that word has ever crossed my lips.

Answer 6

i think i was about 6 my best friend at the time was huey and when he introduced himself it was always "hi i'm huey i'm black ya know" it didn't matter who you were he had to say that everytime he met someone, he was also on that eternal quest for "soul food" heh none of that white stuff for him of course when we played starsky & hutch he was always the blonde one. the next one was when i decided to try that same introduction once it went kinda like "hi i'm jason you're black ya know" which my mother had to explain right away. heh i have to laugh everytime i think of that, i wonder how many folks are gonna take this the wrong way. i like this question here's a star and a no-prize adieu

Answer 7

I yelled at a white lady (when I was a kid in Africa) because she got all up in my little brother's face. She freaked out because she wasn't expecting a little African kid to speak English and be so mouthy, lol. I was 3 years old:)

About your experience...so many immigrants (like the asian family you describe) take their cues from racist people and they never learn just exactly how horrible a mistake they've made until the same racist people from who they took their cues...turn on them (ex: middle eastern people in the US).

Answer 8

I am mixed (Puerto Rican dad/white mom) and very fair skinned/Caucasian looking and raised mostly on my mom's side of the family.

I can't give my earliest memory, per se, but race started to matter not until I got into high school, where the majority of latins/blacks were extremely racist, esp the latins (including the light/fair skinned caucasian hispanics). They all tried (and still try) to be black. I remember senior year, one kid in particular, a Peruvian kid (of mestizo/amerindian descent), hung around nothing but blacks, used the n word around them, & hated white people for no reason (including me). He made fun of me simply because I wasn't ghetto-acting and told my best friend (who is hispanic/mestiza) she was a white girl because she listened to punk rock and dressed skate/rocker.

Its this kind of stupidity that most latinos persist on doing, the try to be black/act ghetto crap. They need to realize 90% of them have some form of european ancestry/blood (even if its mixed), so they shouldn't hate on white people because a lot of them ARE white themselves (or mostly, should I say, knowing the large racial mixing in the hispanic community). A lot of them also need to realize they aren't black (not counting the Afro-Cubans, Afro-Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans) and stop using the n word and acting like its their right to. If it hadn't been for european settlement they wouldn't have their language and the beautiful mixing of genetics (mulatto, mestizo, multi-racial) that most of them have.

Answer 9

Oh yea I understand you very well. I have been there too. I have even had that happened to me at the gap. But when I go to the counter to pay & pull my credit or debit card there shitty faces light up

Answer 10

I'm very sorry this happened. I believe it's happened to all of us, regardless of race, during the elementary school years.