I never started having a serious problem with the color of my skin until I entered elementary school. I knew there were a multitude of successful african americans in the world and, thankfully, I never had to deal with any severe forms of racism. But I just couldn’t shake off the feeling that I was coming up short. In hindsight, I know that I had more potential, but at that moment, I felt like I was simply average, mediocre even. Both my elementary school and my middle school were predominantly caucasian. The town itself was not very diverse and my mother was never too fond of it. She would always make snide comments on how “white” our neighborhood was and I agreed with her. When relatives came over they would comment on the lack of other minorities
