Essay on Racial: Middle School

Submitted By calexjohnson
Words: 560
Pages: 3

Racial Autobiography As far as traceable, the maternal side of my family began in Ontario, CA. Where my great(x3) grandfather who is black and my great grandmother who was white owned a school.
I’m not sure what happened in the past of my paternal side, which remains a mystery. What I do know is that I was born fully African­American. Both of my parents were born and raised in MI.
My mother Danita, and my father, Johnson were married and 1995. They grew around a black community so that’s all they knew. They then had my older brother, who is 18 years old and a graduate at High School. My brother has mainly white friends, not saying this is wrong, but it has shaped him in the opposite way of our family's values.

Growing up I’ve moved 3 times. When I lived in Detroit, all of my friends were African
American, and I knew not one person of a different racial group. While living there everyone around my neighborhood had the mindset that we would grow up to be gangsters. Now I realize that, that was completely stupid. After living in Detroit for 8 years I moved to Belleville, MI where my neighbors were equally mixed with black and white. That had no type of impact on the way I acted.
When I went to Detroit Public Schools, I attended an all black elementary school with a handful of different cultures that I usually did not pay attention to. Once I moved out to
Belleville, everything was half and half, no other cultures, everyone was white, black, or mixed.
Middle school was the same, there were a few other cultures but I would pay no mind. I didn’t really experience racism until I moved to Canton. When I attended East Middle School I was the only black person in majority of my classes. As soon as I arrived a group of black girls came up

to me and said “you should be our friend and hangout with us instead of them.” At first I didn’t know what they meant but now thinking back at it I wish I would have said I can hangout with whoever I want without it being a problem. I