Personal Narrative-Black People Are Ghetto

“Black people are illiterate. Black people are rude. Black people are ghetto. Black people are ugly.” With the repetitive use of those words, it seemed as if the darkness within my skin was not beautiful melanin, but beastly mud; tainting the pure white porcelain of my ancestors. As a biracial girl in the deep south, it was very hard for me to find and have pride in my identity. Surrounded by a majority caucasian friends, I was stuck in a schlump. What’s so great about being black? In an environment where the blackness of one’s skin is treated as a disease, I was full of self-hatred. That is until I moved. Torn from my usual in Irmo, I found myself alone in a school in a predominantly black population. What do I do? The feelings of self-hatred …show more content…
Black people are ghetto.” And as much as I attempted to make those statements work out in my head, none of it made sense. None of my new classmates were rude to me. None of my new classmates were ‘ghetto’, though I now know the diction of the word does not match the definition. And also, none of my new classmates were ugly just because of their skin color. Nobody was. My social anxiety was a consequence of the stereotypes placed in my head by my so-called ‘friends’ back in Irmo. After coming to that realization, I had the courage to speak to someone for the first time, another biracial classmate, Alyssa Maul. Though intimidating at first, her hazel eyes and bright smile brightened my freshmen year and brought me out of my reclusive shell. I went from depressed and uninvolved to a proud member of freshman house. The more involved I got with the school and community, the more I noticed about the people around me. All of the black people were kind when helping me adjust to freshman house. All the black people were smart in problem-solving and planning events within the school. All of the black people had unique personalities which made them special. All of the black people were beautiful, inside and out. The actions of my black classmates inspired me to read more into the actions and achievements of my black ancestors. And whilst reading about and observing the beauty in others, I had discovered the unknown