When I first learned this was going to be our first assignment, I was a little bit cautious, to be honest. I’ve always been a very decisive person and thought I knew where my beliefs did and did not reside. This test, however, stays true to its word, and the word hidden has a definite reason for being in the title. As previously stated I was quite nervous going into this, but after I took the first test, I decided to take another out of curiosity. In the end, I ended up taking two tests: The Sexuality and Race IAT. These are both very tender topics, and the reason I chose them was because they don’t make an appearance too often in my daily life and was curious to see how I really felt about them. Out of the two tests, there was one result that…
"Before death I hope to obtain life." This quote reminds me of my Michigan Hero Danielle Nash. Danielle was my cousin who was diagnosed with stage four Melanoma and Brain Cancer at age 26. Before cancer, she opened her own Day Care/ Preschool in Whitehall called Bright Futures, she was only 21. She also started the first Middle School Competitive Cheerleading Team in Reeths Puffer and was also the head coach of the Varsity Reeths Puffer Competitive Cheerleading team. She lived in the Whitehall area her whole life, and had a husband named Jake and two kids, Brady who is now four and Addisyn who is two. Danielle did so much for her community, and impacted my life and so many others, and even though she isn't with us anymore she is still my Michigan…
“I can’t believe I’m doing this” I mutter into my wooly scarf. It’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the weather reads ten degrees Fahrenheit. I shift my weight and try to get into a more comfortable squatting position as the rocks dig into my boots. I look around; it’s a rather dreary day with no clouds in sight. I scribble in a notepad. Five minutes in and my hands are numb.…
Objectively, I am a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin, a friend, a cancer survivor, and a student.…
When I was a child, my favorite movie was The Wizard of Oz. Out of all of Dorothy’s friends, the Cowardly Lion was probably my least favorite. He had gone to ask the Wizard for courage and I didn’t understand why. Others wanted tangible items such as a brain or a heart and yet he wanted courage. I had thought of courage as something that you just dug down and found within yourself when you needed it not something not just a material thing that was necessary to live like a brain or a heart. Courage is something I always felt I had within, but it was confirmed within myself when my school hit major news over racial issues.…
It was a beautiful day in April, 1963, and in a store downtown there was an argument going on.…
A life in the ghetto is no life at all. Especially in Molesville, Pennsylvania, a town left in the dust by modern society. Ever since I can remember my mother has been sick, this terrible place is the cause. With little sanitation the streets are rat infested and the poor die young. We had not had enough money, when my father left us, to afford food to live with, let alone go get help from a doctor. After my mother’s pregnancies she gradually became more and more sick. I thought my mother was in pain from the way she sat on her bed constantly crying. That theory was proven one day when her will to fight died. She transformed into a being of hatred. Her heart turned as black as the night. She was different, the mother I once knew dead. Although I knew she was still there, deep, deep down waiting for me to rescue her from herself. In almost an instant I decided the only way to save her was to earn the money for…
As I entered homeroom, I noticed I was the only latina present and that there was only one other person of color. At first this did not bug me, but as the week went by, I realized that we were the only two non-white students in the whole middle school. This made me feel very out of place, because I had never been the only Latina at a school, so I did anything I could to fit in. I was willing to let people make me their own personal dictionary, for inappropriate language, or to translate their readings. As a person of color, I was always taught to put others before me or else I would be seen as rude and uneducated, so I complied. Throughout my life, I have witnessed that many upper class citizens take their privilege for granted; they do not…
Warm dim lights bounced around the inside of a classroom like air molecules inside a hot air balloon. It was different outside. Crystal clear rain drops fell from the sky endlessly. The reason why we had recess inside instead of outside. Sitting with friends in a circle, we played with lego blocks while building the most breathtaking structures.…
When we got to my house, my friend was there. My younger sister wanted to go hang out with her friend down the street, so he and I went down the street to bring her while Leann and Kyanna stayed at my house. When we got to the neighbors yard, I could feel eyes peering at me through the window. My sister’s best friend came outside and I felt the same look again. Someone was definitely watching us. We heard movement in the house. Rushed movement, like someone was afraid. My sister’s best friend went back in the house to find out what was wrong. She came back out and told us that her family was afraid my friend was going to rob them. My friend was an African American and people often stereotyped African Americans to be robbers. The girl’s family…
At the public swimming pool, it was hard enough just trying to make sure that the water had the right type of chemicals in it. When I saw my new coworkers I went up to them with open arms and a big smile, but I soon learned that I was not welcomed. I tried some ice breakers but it just seemed to make everything worse. I tried to not believe that it was a race issue because I was the only black person surrounded by white people. It was until another white coworker showed up and they greeted him like he just came home from war. I suddenly moved myself to the other side of the pool and watched.…
Out of all experiences I've had, the one that has been meaningful to me is taking my last yearbook pictures for my senior year. I wasn't taking pictures for a mugshot and a crime scene photographer wasn’t taking pictures of my lifeless body. I reached a milestone in my life that many people told me I couldn’t achieve. Though I hadn’t walked across the stage for graduation yet, it felt good to do something that many people told me I wouldn’t ever experience being a young black girl in America. The reason why this specific moment was meaningful to me is because it made me think about the many people my age who never got to experience this; the feeling of being ALMOST done with high school. I could've been like many African American people my…
s an anthropologist, I have studied many races, ethnic groups, and cultures, even subcultures of the American Africans of North America. There are many subcultures in their ethnicity and the one that stuck out to me over the years is their ritualistic holiday. Their holy day, is not like any other days I have come across. It’s every week and takes up more than twelve hours of the day.…
I was born and raised here in the United States. Therefore, I have been part of a generation that has experienced both the good and the bad. When I was younger, I always thought America was the greatest country in the world. I was so proud to be born and raised in the United States. I remember learning about 9/11 every year, watching Barack Obama become our first African-American President, and learning about the many tragedies our nation has faced along these past few years. Being an American and witnessing so many events unfold these past few years has made me feel both happy and upset with how our nation has evolved. The United States is filled with so much pop culture and technology and…
Growing up I was the most naive child around. I thought the world was full of sunshine and rainbows and that everyone was nice to one another. My parents raised me to remember the three b’s: be nice, be respectful and behave. They told me I could be whatever I wanted to be and I believed that for a very long time until I hit middle school. I didn't know I was different. I didn't see a difference between myself and the other kids but in fact, I am a minority. I didn't know that race was a thing until we took one month out of the nine in which school was in session and learned about slavery. That's when I was introduced to the word that haunted my ancestors and will eventually haunt me. The word was a product of hatred that white people made to boost their…