What does it mean to be White? What does it the mean to be Black? There should be no meaning to either. It should just indicate your skin color, which should not matter in the first place. Apparently, it indicates more than your skin color; it shows who you really are and what you do. The only thing we should see in people is respectfulness and kindness, not skin color.I have been called White for a long time even though my skin color appears to be Black.
My name is Olivia Reed and I am a proud African American. I love to listen to loads of music with my favorites being indie, alternative, chill rock and oldies. I love to read, write and create pieces that can be called drawings, only if it looks good. I love running and riding my longboard. Yes, I have a longboard. My favorite food is mushroom ravioli. Watching movies as well is a favorite of mine. I have many friends of all races who I love dearly. All of these aspects of my life make me Olivia. Yet at the same time, it makes me White.
Being called White all through high school really disintegrated my little bit of confidence I had left seeing that it was almost completely gone because of my terrible middle school years. During the high school, I would always get called White by everyone (of all races), which completely threw me off. In such hard times, hearing that from my own race really made me feel disconnected from them. So why were they calling me this?
According to the stereotype believers, being Black is the complete opposite of myself. To be Black you must listen to trap or rap music. You need to only do sports like basketball, track, etc. A black person longboarding? As if. Also, you need to like chicken and ribs. Finally, you can only hang out with Black people and act ghetto. If this was the case, then I was born into the wrong race. Now to be White, you would just flip all of those and bam, you have got yourself the White stereotypes.
Nowadays, it seems as if our world depends on stereotypes. It can be seen anywhere; politics, schools, or even just in our everyday lives. This is one of the many things that is destroying our world and making us even more divided.
The stereotypes need to stop.
It only brings agony and destruction. If people have open minds, you can see everyone is not the same and then the world will not seem so divided. Everyone in one race does not need to like certain things or act a certain way. If that were the case, this would be a very boring world to live in.
All in all, do not call me White. I am African American. Yes, I do love certain things that are not “common” to my race, but that is what makes me. To everyone experiencing the same problems, you are not alone. You are still apart of your race; always have pride in that and who you are as a person.