Reflective Essay: How Race Has Shaped My Life

One of the most important identities to me is my blackness. As far back as I can remember I knew I was black and was very aware of the meaning of that. I went to a majority-minority middle, and high school, I live in an all-black neighborhood and, of course, I live in an all black household. For most of my life, I have mostly been around black people and people of color, so just going to school with majority white people is definitely a different experience. Race has shaped my life because growing up, most people who I saw in the mass media was white people and this includes my books, or on the magazines I bought was white. If I did happen to see a black person in the media, often times they were misrepresented; making it look as if every single black person is lazy or loud or from the ‘hood’. White was and is still seen as the standard of beauty in America and most of the world. I rarely saw, intelligent, polite, young black kids when I was growing up and I took note of that. I do believe that race has shaped my life in many ways. And I also believe that it will continue to affect my life chances because so much of everyday life is related to it. I remember back when I was in elementary school which was fairly diverse but I would still get looks from teachers when …show more content…
When I was young I remember the very gendered comments and toys id get and I would wonder why I couldn’t do certain things girls could do (in my parent’s eyes). What made things even more obvious to me as a kid was the fact that I was always around my cousins which happen to be all girls and one guy along with my little sister. I would try to put on my older cousins heels and walk around in them but my parents would tell me to take them off. I was quickly introduced to cars as a kid but interestingly enough my mother was the one who was teaching me about the cars since she knew more about them than my