The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

   When I lived in Pooler, GA, a small town outside of Savannah, GA, I remember living in an all white neighborhood. I loved it to a certain extent, but I hated being the only African American student in the neighborhood. I remember one night, a group of Caucasian males set a tree on fire across the street from my house and sent the fire department to my house. If it wasn't for my aunt and uncle being home, proving that I was in the house, I would have been charged with arson and taking into juvenile detention. Another incident I remember was riding the bus to school and being the only African American on the bus. My bus driver put my seat all the way in the back of the bus and I truly got offended. I took that as an insult because they way she did it bring me back to segregation days. I remember my guardians storming into the school wanting answers on why I was being mistreated on the bus due to my race. My aunt received her answers and the school no longer bothered me for the rest of the year.

    The prejudice I went through throughout my eighth grade year diminish equity in the sense of freedom of speech, because every time I tried to tell the bus driver my feelings she would tell me to shut up and sit down, the fact that the fire department though I set the tree on fire due to my race, and the type of prejudice the down showed towards African American people. There were not too many African American people living in the down due to prejudice type of town it was. Many people would rather live outside that town then inside that town.

 This incident brought hurt, anger, hatred to my heart against white Americans. I hated talking to Caucasian people, I did not like them looking at me, and I ended up hating the school I attended. It took for me to change my heart in my older years to not have hatred in my heart because all Caucasians are not that way. I had to learn how to forgive those who hurt me and let the lord handle my battles. I am more happier today because I no longer have that grudge in my heart against different race because of what one person did to me. In order to change this incident into an opportunity for greater equity, the bus driver and Caucasian children would have had to change their ways . They were the cause of the hurt and pain and if they wouldn't have done what they did, the opportunity for greater equity would have still been there.