Short Story

Learning About Discrimination as he grew up.

  When he was younger and sheltered from the world, he truly believed that he could do anything. He spent countless nights imagining the things he’d do and learn in order to make his dreams come true but the world he thought was full of dreams became one full of endless nightmares. He was excited about school as his parents told him that it’d be the best place for him if he wanted his dreams to come true. He never imagined that the place he was most excited about would become the place that he hated the most. He watched other people and questioned if they were having the same experience as him. Did they hate going to school too? Were they afraid they’d be targeted as well because they looked different? The answer he eventually found was no. No, they weren’t afraid and no they didn’t hate it there. Over time as he observed the others he realized maybe he was the only one different. Everyone but him had people surrounding him and the only time they did approach him was to ridicule him. It’d been going on for a while and his parents noticed that something was off so they started questioning him, only to receive an answer that broke their hearts. He talked about how the other kids made fun of him because his skin color was darker, how they began to stereotype him over things he had nothing to do with, and how maybe dreaming was something a person “like him” wasn’t allowed to do.

Anthology

  A collection of their stories

                                                               Put together by Karrissa Sealey

“Despise the eyes with tears

Resent the heart with fears

Beaten and reluctant

To hear the repeated words

Constantly thrown at him

And hesitant to look into the eyes that’s

Always looking down on him

Because of the color his skin

Cries emerging

From the depths of his soul

To win the hearts of men

But he lacked confidence in his appearance to them

Because his eyes and head bowed to the ground

Because his shoes begged bread and

Because his skin showed signs of defeat

What he had been through

And the unbearable pain to come

Because he has no parents to steer him right

Dont discriminate against him

Because he is black in your sight”

Rachael Hardy

“I remember being told every morning what I had to look out for. I remember being told that I was an easy target just because I was black. I remember being told that I had to be careful with the way I did things and the way I presented myself to people because they’d be watching my every move. I remember being told that if I made a mistake I’d be so easy to criticize. I remember feeling like I couldn’t breathe and I remember how tight my chest felt. I remember wanting to run away and I remember wanting to be a completely different person. I remember it all.”

     A family friend

“During the fifth grade when Samantha was 10 years old, she was bullied by a male classmate. She remembers walking through the halls of her elementary school and hearing the bully call out these words:

“Why are you on this earth? You don’t deserve to be alive.”

The bullying followed her every day. “I didn’t want to go to school because I knew he would be there. I was afraid,” says Samantha, now 15.

Weeks into the school year, the harassment and intimidation escalated and turned physical.

“It was usually mental [abuse], but at one point in fifth grade the bully came up to me, and he punched me on the back,” says Samantha quietly. That was the breaking point.

“I had enough,” says Samantha’s mother, Karen. “The verbal and physical abuse needed to stop.”

Samantha and her mother reported the incident to the school and the police resource officer. Another student, who witnessed the physical bullying, stepped forward and also reported the incident to the school. The bully was reprimanded by the officer; however, no further action was taken by Samantha’s school.”

Maureen McCarthy

“Why do you think you’re better

If your culture is not the same?

Yes, maybe you seem different

But deep inside all are the same.

Why do they think they’re better?

If one is black and one is white,

If one is man and one is woman.

They are the same, that is their right.

If one is straight and one is gay,

They are no different, just the same

If one is Christian and one is Jew,

All come from God, we are the same.

So, get to know all people,

And show them what you think and do,

You’ll see how others live their lives.

When you like them, then they’ll like you.

If one learns to understand

And respect all points of view,

Then peace on Earth must surely come

It is up to you. And you. And you….”

Adelaide Rhead