Finally the Outcast

During my professional semester, I have learned many valuable things. The thing that I feel is most applicable to this class; however, is the feeling of being in the minority. In my personal life, I have never been the outcast or in the minority based solely on my appearance. I grew up in a place where more than 90% of the population is white. You could literally sit there and name the students in your grade who were not white. So, this was an entire new experience for me, when I walked into Reading High School for the first time. Reading is ethnically split up like this: 80% Latino, 15% African American, and the rest are white. So, I was finally in the small number of the statistic. I was no longer in the largest and most dominant group, I was the pariah. This made me think about Native Americans. I feel like I got a small taste of what their everyday is like, even in a small way. I am obviously not even close to feeling how a Native person must feel, because there is probably a much smaller percentage in most schools of Natives, except in places like Oklahoma. However, I finally know how they feel, at least a little.

It is really very interesting to walk around and see no one who looks like you. I mean I could tell you the students that I helped teach that were white. Instead of hearing conversations that started off with “well this African American girls were saying” I now heard “well this white girl is weird for washing her hair everyday” I actually laughed to myself first thinking about telling this girl that it is actually really common for white girls to wash their hair every day, and then thinking just how wonderful labeling is. I am a big advocate, even among my friends, of people not being described by their race or ethnicity.  You should not start off a sentence with well my black friend Myron said…Now, here I am thinking that I am protecting those very people, but the people who were in the minority in the majority of my life are saying the same thing about white girls. It was a great moment of clarity. White people, in this instance are not being overtly rude; we as Americans apparently just have this obsession of labeling and describing people based upon their appearance. Well, at least it isn’t one of those things that people in the dominant majority of the group slip into, it really is just a thing that we do. This we is the collective whole of everyone, not just Americans, not just anyone apparently every one labels others-this was news to me! Not really sure when this trend started, or where but it was and continues to be an eye-opener when you are the only person around of that particular race.

The only difference with me, versus Natives, is that I actually like being the only white person. I’m sure some Natives feel that way, they like the fact that they are different. However, I don’t know if I would like being different all the time. For a two week period, it’s okay to be the oddball. For my whole school existence? I don’t think that I could handle that; I would need some camaraderie, someone who was like me. But, what if you were like Natives, what if there wasn’t anyone else like you? What if you felt isolated, alone, and like no one understood? I think that that would be how I felt if I was a Native American, and quite frankly, that does not sound like a fun time, in fact it sounds like quite a tight spot to be in.

Apparently, at Reading High School, I am the outcast, I am the little white egg. This picture seems oddly fitting of that fact.