The most salient experience in my life directly related to my race. Having grown up in a town where I was not from the dominant culture, I have many memories from my childhood that were very painful and emotional. Obviously, because forty plus years later when asked to write about them. I feel a sense of emotion welting up inside of me and I still can recall them. I would have to share that the most painful one would be in my teen years. Hanging with classmates someone would use the word” nigger”, explaining to me “No offense”. I would stay silent, not saying a word.
Having been taught that, that word was developed for salves by the dominant race. It was used to make a person feel weak, degraded and offended. It should never be used it and I must be offended by any person that does use it. The bias made me feel bad, sad, and sorry for myself. It hurt my feelings.
I would later find the words to educate my classmates aka friends on why it was not alright to make such statements to anyone for any reason. And that say “nothing against you” only makes it worst.
Lilliane,
ReplyDeleteI never call anybody the 'N' word. It is a very racist and demeaning word. Thats a pretty tough and saddening situation. Im sorry your 'friends' were so ignorant. I am glad you now know what to say and od to educate others who make the same mistakes.
Lilliane,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that very powerful experience. The power of words is incredible and more and more I find it difficult to impress upon children the impact their words can have on another human being. As we have learned the last few weeks, children learn racism, bias and prejudice through "explicit and implicit messages" (Margles, & Margles, 2010) and as teachers we have an up hill battle to turn these ideas around.