my essay "break the chains"

As people grow up, they learn about their society and culture through observation and through personal experiences. One thing that everyone gains some knowledge of, regardless of the validity of the information, is race. People learn about the different stereotypes associated with different races that are either prevalent in their society or are one of the factors that somehow affect their society. The short story “The Sky is Gray” by Ernest J Gaines is set in a time in which stereotypes were a part of life; these stereotypes were often part of the reality of the characters in this story. Similarly, the stereotypes of my society were highlighted through the experiences that I lived during my stay at Carleton College. Without knowing, people make generalizations about a certain group of people and this assumption seems to affect their lives, even though they are unaware of the falsehood of their beliefs.
The thing that most people do when discussing another race is generalize. They assume a certain authority, so to speak, in order to criticize and classify people of other races. For example, one common stereotype about people of color is that they are never on time to an event; this idea is given the term Colored People Time (CPT). This stereotype is a criticism against people of color because it depicts them as irresponsible people. In “The Sky is Gray”, the characters have a stereotype of white people that seems to dominate their actions and everyday life. The characters in this story strongly believe that white people are superior and that white people live better off than any other race. This is a generalization because these characters classify all white people to have these certain qualities.
When I went to Carleton College, I made the same generalization that all white people had money. I assumed that their lives were much better than mine and that they were all much wealthier than I was, being that I was a Dominican girl from the Bronx borough. Growing up in a poverty stricken place, where everyone was either on welfare, section eight, or both, life seemed to be a struggle that only people of color had to face, since only people of color live in my community. I would observe how happy the white people on television were and that gave me the impression that this was the life that every white person lived: a life of happiness, satisfaction, and money. Never did it occur to me that there would be a white person that would suffer more poverty than people I had witnessed all of my life. My generalization of white people was somehow distorted and incorrect. I found that out when I met my rhetoric assistant. He was a white man who grew up in Alabama and had a different world to talk to me about.
The story “The Sky is Gray” can be compared to my experience in Carleton College because they are based on financial struggles that people face. In both stories, there was a mother that was struggling to make ends meet. The mom in “The Sky is Gray” tries to stretch her money so that there could be enough to pay for the dentist but also to buy some meat for the kids at home. She was more focused on necessity rather than luxury. A good example is illustrated when James and his mother are walking around the town. They were walking through a snowstorm but they had thin coats of low quality because there was no money to purchase better coats. It was more important, for the mother, to feed the children and pay the dentist instead of getting luxurious coats; at least they had coats, regardless of how thin they were. ‘”Some people ain’t [sic] got that—hard’s [sic] time is” (Gaines 88). This is similar to the way my rhetoric assistant lived because his mom had to make ends meet. She didn’t have money to buy luxurious items, or any items, but instead of having her kids starve, she went to get government help, also known as food stamps. Another similarity is that in both cases it is obvious that “it’s the poor who suffers the most” (Gaines 95). Neither family got what they wanted; they lived their life based on the circumstances that they faced daily. Instead of planning for the future of the children, for example, the mothers had to worry about their present. There was never a time when the mothers had savings for their children to go to school. The children only went to public school on certain days because the mothers needed to worry about their financial stability. The main character from “The Sky is Gray” missed some days of school because he had to take care of his siblings or help his mother around the house. My rhetoric assistant also had to do these things. Finally, in both stories, education was regarded as a way out of poverty. The college student in the story did not accept assumptions of being inferior; he decided that through educating himself, he would be liberated and live a satisfactory life. My rhetoric assistant also decided that the only way he was going to be satisfied was if he left his circumstances in the pursuit of an education. Even though he didn’t have the money to go to Carleton College, he did not accept the assumption that he would stay in his poor condition. He took advantage of the “need blind” policy of the school and he was given a lot of money to study. In both stories, the main characters were aware of generalizations made about them, but they did not allow themselves to be limited.
The differences between the stories help to show that generalizations about struggle are not necessarily true. One major difference between the stories is the racial backgrounds of the characters, who had to struggle. In “The Sky is Gray”, the people, who were struggling, were black and in my experience, the rhetoric assistant was white. The fact that the people struggling were from different races shows that associating a certain race with a certain income is incorrect. Not all black people are poor and not all white people are rich. This is a common misconception that people have since they live in a society that only shows one side of a story. There were many white students in the program who probably assumed that I would be poor since I am a person of color and because I live in a borough that is assumed to be poor. They later found out that it was not true. Living in a poor community does not necessarily make me poor and though my rhetoric assistant is white, it does not mean that he is rich. He worked hard for what he wanted. This is another difference between the stories. The college student just spoke about his ideas and he was only questioning his reality, while my rhetoric assistant was willing to change his reality. The college student would question his status and the belief of people around him but my rhetoric assistant took it one step further. It is as if my rhetoric assistant was living out the dream of the college student in the story by getting an education and changing his conditions. These two characters took different approaches to the misconceptions around them and that helped to either change or keep their lives the same way.
The generalizations that we make, regardless of how valid they are, end up affecting us in many ways. The thought that all black people are poor creates a feeling of inferiority for the black people. It makes them feel like they can never get anything in life because of the color of their skin. They felt like they had less opportunities, when in reality they did not; they were limiting themselves. For example, the preacher in “The Sky is Gray” engulfs the misconceptions of black people. He embraces them in such a way that he does not want to hear anything that would go against them. The college student tries to make the preacher question his status but instead, the preacher slaps him because he does not want to know. The preacher was limiting his knowledge by trying to “protect” the kid. He felt pity for the kid since the kid was thinking differently, when he should have had pity on himself since he was accepting the stereotypes imposed on him. Before arriving at Carleton College, I had the idea that I would be inferior to most of the people there because I had the misconception that they would all have more money than I did. I was limiting myself by not thinking that I would have anything to add to the class, when in reality I did. I grew up in a neighborhood quite different than they did and I had a different perspective on life, which would contribute to the class discussions. Instead of thinking that I would be inferior, I should have felt privileged because I got the opportunity to teach people about my community to distort their misconceptions of it. I was also getting an opportunity to learn more about writing which was a privilege on its own. We should not indulge in the stereotypes that are out there because they will only limit us from expanding our knowledge.
There are many ideas that people have when discussing something unknown to them. What people usually do in this circumstance is make generalizations instead of trying to change the stereotypes around them. In both “The Sky is Gray” by Ernest J. Gaines and my experience in Carleton College, generalizations and misconceptions were proven wrong. Not everything one thinks of another race is true. One should not always go by what society accepts as true because in doing so, an individual would be limiting himself or herself.