Personal Experience: My Migration To The United States

As a young child, I came to the United States at the age of five from Trinidad and Tobago. Growing up in the West Indies, which is described as a melting pot, everyone was equal and there were no disparities between cultures. As a West Indian child our culture was different, everyone was welcoming and we did not see race or ethnicity among people. At a young age, I gained knowledge about my ethnicity and background, because my Caribbean culture was always instilled in me through various cultural activities. After moving to the United States, I began to notice that I was different through experiences that I endured during my childhood and adulthood.
My first earliest encounter with an event that surrounds race and ethnicity was when I started …show more content…
Sarah was Caucasian, and she welcomed me without judging me in school. Sarah was my first encounter of a person from a different race and background who actually wanted to be my friend. I saw no difference in Sarah and she saw no difference in me, even though I was in ESOL classes. Ideally at a young age, I did not know anything about racial differences, I just knew about my ethnicity differences at that point in time. Over the years of elementary school and being friends with Sarah, our close relationship started to change once people saw us together more. Sarah never wanted to hang out outside of school, and her friends never accepted me. I always wanted to know why I was never allowed to talk to her outside, and why her friends did want to play with me. One day I got so upset and I went outside in the neighborhood and tired to play with them. During this encounter I was called a nigger by the child’s parents in the neighborhood. They expressed out loud “not to play with that nigger over there”. At first I was shocked because I never knew what that terminology meant. The next day in school Sarah stated that she can no longer hang out with me because her parents told her to only hang out with people her skin color. I was shocked because I taught Sarah and her friends did not want to hangout because I was in ESOL, not because of the color of my skin. This was hard to deal …show more content…
My mother taught me that I did not have to be a product of my environment that the dominant group created. My mother explained to me that I would attend a better school and get the same education as the dominant group, which I did. She also stated to me that do not make excuses because of the color of your skin and that everyone is equal before God. Today in this group we deal with oppression through advocating, making a difference in communities and standing up for our rights. We are also holding rallies; we are getting elected for different positions that are high ranking. This is how I am dealing with oppression now, by verbalizing my thoughts in a positive way and not through violence. In my family, we did not see ourselves as the subordinate group until arriving in the United States. Since being here and seeing the struggle we are now apart of the oppressed and it is life, but we must always instill change. Over the years, I have learned that all races, whether black or white have the capability to excel in life, and nothing should prevent any body from exploiting his/her potential. This belief kept me going for the better part of my life since I was aware that I have the audacity to change that I will be in the coming years. In addition, my interaction with people of different races and ethnic background made me to conceptualize a phrase in my mind. The phrase in this