The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

One of the hurtful experiences I had was when I was in the ninth grade and we where meeting with our college and career counselors for the first time, during this meeting we where separated by race. They had all the Blacks and Latinos go to career counselors and had all the White and Asian students go to the college counselors. They told us that we will not be able to go to college and that we had to select a vocational career track instead of selecting a college or university to attend. I was placed on a cosmetology track. I was completely disappointed because I had always dreamed of going to an university just like my dad who was a graduate of North Carolina A&T. My father had always instilled in me that I was to go to college and the thought of not fulfilling my father one request was not an option. So I decided to ask them if I could go over to see the college counselors but they told me that I would not be able to get into college. From that very moment I give up, I stop trying to learn and I even stop going to school. I missed over 20 days of school and skipped countless classes. I had no real desire or hope it was all killed and destroyed on that day.

It wasn’t until I had a life-altering event and suffered a brain injury and lost some of my memory and had to be place in a restrictive special needs program but it was there that I received hope. There was a special needs teacher who really believed in me he worked with me one-on-one all year and he taught me everything from the ground up and gave me a good foundation to stand on. The next school year, I moved to Maryland from New Jersey and according to my transcript I was labeled as a ninth grader but I was supposed to be in the eleventh grade. So the school decided to test me and see what grade to put me in. I scored college level in every subject except English. I was able to continue onto my right grade and from that moment I knew I had a chance to change my life. I did very well and graduated on time and finish college.

Looking back at this moment, I realized that I was a victim of discrimination. I was refused the same opportunities as my White and Asian peers. This was a form of institutionalized oppression and I was been marginalized based on my race. At that moment, I was not being afforded a fair and appropriate education; it was unjust and unfair treatment. I felt so powerless and gave up on my dreams of becoming a college graduate. If it wasn’t for a few good teachers along the way that believed in me when I didn’t have the power to believe in myself I would not be here today. This experience made me aspire to become a teacher so that I can be a ray of hope for the next child who feels hopeless and lost in despair.

The only regret I have is that I wish I could have become an advocate for all the other students at that school that day. Maybe I could have written a letter or petition for change in the way the school handle their career and college readiness program. I’m sure that I was not the only person that felt powerless that day and they may not have had the opportunity to over come the mental effects the discrimination we experienced that day and I did nothing to help them. If I could do anything to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity it would have been to just do something.