Racial Discrimination In High School

There existed an in-group bias, a liking for the White race in my high school and animosity towards anyone not from the race of the dominant student body.. The unexpected dismay that I felt as a student in my school, was similar to the discrimination Elijah Anderson describes in his article, “ He describes how anyone from a different race will be forced to self-evaluate their social identity as an individual. His description of self-evaluation is similar to the time when in my senior year of high school, I felt I had finally become equal to my peers and enjoyed the same status and class as them. However, I was met with dismay and pushed down by the white supremacists in my school who forced to recognize that my rights as an individual can never …show more content…
I felt the need to prove to my teachers, friends and peers that my affiliation with a minority does not make me incapable of getting good grades or becoming socially involved in clubs. As a student, I wanted to thwart the negative prejudices my minority was regarded with in school, by not conforming to the stereotypes it was associated with. I was believed to be incompetent, as soon as, I began my high school as my advisor and teachers both suggested, I track in lower division classes believing that, I would be unable to handle classes that demanded high critical thinking and problem solving. It was instances such as these, where I had the choice of either conforming, meeting the low expectations my advisors had of me, or stand up against the oppression and take higher division classes. I chose to stand up against my advisor and teachers’ low expectation of me, and decided to take classes that were academically challenging. The actions of my advisor and teachers reveal the fundamental attribution error ideology, as they assumed my performance in school was my own doing and not caused by the societal pressures to outperform my peers. I pressured myself to work harder and raise the low, demeaning standards that Pakistani girls like myself, were regarded with in society and in school. by rebelling against the institutional racism, the belittling group categories within my school, and the stereotypical threats, the demeaning ideals about my race. I wanted to be identified as a Pakistani-American woman and forcing myself to work against my demeaning social location, of my race and gender. I rebelled against not only, the stereotypes of my Pakistani minority but also those associated with my