A Story About Racism

Racism and Family

Racism in America is very relevant still to this day. It’s not only in everyday life, but we can see racism in sports as well. It wasn’t until this discussion that I was able to dive head first into a conversation that many people try to avoid. I have never been able to wrap my head around how people can so easily judge others because of the color of their skin.  Growing up, my aunt adopted a native american girl, and an african american boy. Me and my african american cousin were inseparable. To this day me and my cousin are best friends. Our family never taught me or my cousin that we were different because of

our skill color, because that is simply not true, we are no different from one another. Children don’t see segregation based on skin color. With that being said- no one is born racist. It is taught, by the actions and words of your elders and peers. 

Once my cousin and I reached junior high, I began noticing how people treated my african american cousin, in comparison to how they treated me. In school he was picked on by kids, and many adults, but it wasn’t until he reached highschool football where many of the teammates would call him derogatory

names like the N word. He would come home sobbing, for the things these teammates would say, to the point where he had to move schools in order for the racism to stop. 

I have a story, that I have personally gone through regarding me, a white girl, who was at the time probably 18, and my counsin who is an African American male, who at the time was probably 19-20. We both at different times got pulled over for the same exact thing, we both didn’t fully stop for three seconds at a four way stop. In my experience the cop was very nice to me and just gave me a warning and let me go. For my cousin on the other hand, he was treated very harshly, and was asked to get out of the car, and put his hands on the car, while the police officer searched the vehicle, and found nothing. He was also ticketed for “running” the stop sign. It confused me very deeply why my cousin was asked to get out of the vehicle, when all he did was roll through a stop. Why did he need his car searched? When I talked to him about the incedent he told me he was just caught “driving while black”. He said he wasn’t surprised because that's just what people of his skin color have been going through recently. Whereas me, a white woman just got let go with a warning (thank goodness), but it made me think this is some kind of ostrecizement of different races. I

learned that unfortunately some cultures will have different unfair experiences from others, and this is an issue that needs to be solved immediately. 

This brings us to the topic of how relevent racism still is. Racism at it’s core isolates people. Teams with different races tend to group themselves with what they are comfortable with, and usually that is people with similar skin colors. 

In America now, it is vital for us to speak up and talk about racism. We need to talk about George Floyd, we need to talk about Breonna Taylor. Their deaths cannot be forgotten in order for America to take a step in the right direction. One thing that I can do to defeat racism is study and begin undersatnding unconscious bias, and how some things I do or say can come across as racist, and learn how to avoid doing those things. Another way I can make a difference is by speaking up when I see or hear any form of racism. Overall, I think educating yourself and others about equality and anti-racism is a start to building a generation with no racism at all.