Ace's essay

How do children learn to hate? After the Brown vs. Board of Ed. case, schools are desegregated, but I believe that racial tension and discrimination still exists in schools. The first time I ever felt racially discriminated by the color of my skin was when I was ten in the fourth grade. Sine my neighborhood always consisted of both black and white residents with middle to high income, I never experienced or seen racial tension in my life before. I had believed that racial discrimination was a thing of the past that society looked down upon. It wasn’t until I attended a new public school in a white upper class neighborhood, that I had received a rude awakening to racism and segregation in public schools today. 



When I was in fourth grade, I was one of two African-American students in the class and one of three in the entire school. At the time, it seemed as though the children began to joke about stereotypes. Although they didn’t understand why the jokes were funny, the children would ask me if I was someone that fit the normal stereotypical joke. I vividly remember the kids asking me if I liked fried chicken, or if I lived in the ghetto because I was from Brooklyn. Although I never liked fried chicken or ever lived in the ghetto, the kids tried to apply any stereotype to me. I was automatically the scapegoat for what the kids didn’t like about black people. Their hate for black people eventually grew. It wasn’t long before no one wanted to sit next to the black kid in class or at lunch.

When I addressed my problem to the principal, she replied that because I didn’t have the money to live where the other kids resided, I wouldn’t fit in with the children. I was furious about what she said because she also believed that I lived in a low economic environment because the color of my skin. I was also very upset that the principal didn’t explain to the children that stereotypical jokes in school were taboo. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when a student told me “the color of your skin looks like shit.” Fortunately, I left the school after that incident. Since then, I’ve been a much happier person in school, but I’ll never forget the experience of being loathed because of the color of my skin.

It was then that I realized even though the case Brown vs. Board of Ed. was over, the racial tension problem still existed in public schools, even in the north. When I look back on the situation I also think about Kenneth Clark’s studies. Clark’s research was based on According to a quote in the book Eyes On The Prize Civil Rights Reader, Clark’s says “white kindergarten children in New York City show a clear preference for whites and a clear rejection for negroes.”

The study’s results took place in 1950s, and since segregation has been abolished, it is possible that the age of a child’s racial preference may be older. In my case, the age of the children was ten in the fourth grade. Although it’s been four decades since segregation as a whole has been abolished, I believe that racism is still and will be present in our society for a while. I can only hope that children of younger generations learn not to hate or discriminate at a young age.