My Experience with Racism

Boy, am I glad I homeschool my kids. Looks like Conan the Barbarian isn't doing too much for California.

Which reminds me. I was in public school in California. I was there from Kindergarten all the way to the eighth grade. I remember first grade though, especially. I was warned about my new teacher, Ms. Santoyo, from my older brother. I had heard all sorts of nasty things, but I can't recall one thing said. I was pleasantly surprised though, on the first day of school, to see that she was nice. At least I thought so. She was nice to everyone as a whole, I guess.

One day I remember specifically a boy at the desk next to me took my eraser. He wouldn't give it back and I needed it. I demanded it back and he kept hiding it, putting it in the air, and pretending it was a plane or something. Finally I said, "Give me the eraser, stupid!"

The kid went running to the teacher. He, in broken English, told the teacher that I called him stupid. I told the teacher that he took my eraser and would not give it back. She, the teacher said to me, "You are the one who is stupid. He can speak two languages and you cannot." She had a look on her face of triumph, now that I remember it. I did not understand why she would act like that then, but now I do. And it makes me mad. The boy was obviously an immigrant and he barely spoke English. In fact, a good bit of the class was dedicated to teaching these immigrant children how to speak the language, and we English speaking kids were ordered to color or sit still. It is all a blur, but I remember that somewhat.

I also remember after that incident I was suddenly put into a "speech/language" class with mentally retarded kids a few times a week. I remember sitting at the table wondering what the heck I was there for. The kids, who were slow in speech and actually mentally disabled (the kid next to me was in a wheelchair and wore neck braces and stuff), were prompted to read cards from a series of flash cards---or to identify pictures or something. I had to do it too and wondered why I was with these kids. The work was pretty easy, I thought.

Come to find out years later, I was pulled out early from the whole duration of that class because my parents found out about it. The teacher actually put me in there without notifying my parents. My mother had to argue with the teacher about whether I was retarded or not! Now, as an adult, I see why she did it. She was angry I called the Hispanic boy "stupid". If you read the beginning of this post well, you would also see that the teacher was Hispanic. Talk about a racist, huh?