Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Walking to Class While Black

It's an uncomfortable feeling walking and it has been for some time. Besides my bad ankles with an occasional limp here and there, my stride is okay. Its uncomfortable because I'm conscious of the distance I feel like " I have to maintain" because I dont wanna scare people. I'm 5'8' 16o-something so I'm not intimidating physcially , yet with a hoodie on and a Black face I'm a monster. I find myself walking at a comfortable distance behind a person of another race because I dont want them to think I'm following them or a THREAT to them. This happens at night quite frequently for people who have fit my description. Last night I was walking back home from class and a White student was walking in front of me. He kept looking behind him and I couldn't help but assume it was because of my race. I tried to ease his nerves by making a joke about the school in which we both attended.

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