Hatred

White

Middle Class

Female

The beginning of something new.

It all started in 5th grade and I remember it all too well.

The impact came in 6th grade.

Standing in front of our house early in the morning waiting for the bus on the first day of school.  The ride no longer took a mere 30 minutes it took almost an hour.  We sat in silence on the long ride to our new school.  We walked into a new school where we were now the stranger.  We were the foreigners in a foreign land.  Bus riders were the white students and the walkers were the African American students.  This was their school, their territory.  

 Five classrooms were in a 'pod' without permanent walls, no doors, tables instead of desks.  Division and glaring looks at the 'other' permeated throughout the classroom.  Us and them...the white kids and the black kids.  

Something beautiful was both offered and received.  Students sat putting their tick marks on their voting cards.  A new mascot and school colors were chosen.  A new student government was formed that had equal representation.  Partners in the class were assigned.  Teachers treated everyone with the same respect, gave the same encouragement and took us under their wing as 'their children'.   Slowly over that hard fought year friendships were formed.  Invitations to birthday parties exchanged, sleep overs occurred.  The race that had once divided us was no longer seen.

Our one year at Kings Lane Elementary gave way to our friends now having to endure long bus rides to our own Joelton Middle School.   Hugs were given and high-fives were exchanged because we knew the fear that grew with them as they entered what they perceived as 'our territory'.  Relationships tested once again.

Middle School gave way to High School.

High School gave way to what the outside world perceived as an unbalanced and unfair ratio, of 80-85% African Americans to 15-20% Caucasian students.  The media {both print and TV} did everything within their power to slant news from our school in a negative form.  If we won a football game {and we won plenty, never once did we not make it to the second or third round of the state playoffs} it was only because of all of the large 'black boys' on our team.  When our basketball team played in the State Championship game our student body was the rowdy, unsportsmanlike conduct black student body.  When the opposing team's crowd member was handcuffed in the gym for possession of a gun it was slanted that they were merely trying to protect themselves from those kids. When our student leaders went to visit a local news station they were asked the question, so do you have two homecoming queens, one black and one white?  Do you have two valedictorians, one black and one white?  Hatred came spewing out of the mouths of those who were not part of our community.  Hatred from the outside world reigned down upon us.  Slang and disgusting remarks were made about us when we were together as a group in the greater community.  

When people found out that I was a student at Whites Creek High School, their immediate response was always, 'Oh' and the 'oh,' always came with a look.  Even today when I say that I graduated from Whites Creek people in the Nashville community give me that same look of pity and sorrow.

In the 5th grade when we did not start school on time because new school zones were being set I didn't understand. In the 6th grade, I was the foreigner in a strange land and eventually found a place I could call home.  In Middle School relationships were deepened and the color of anyone's skin wasn't seen.  In High School, we danced together, celebrated our 16th birthdays together, dated {without the thought of the color of one another's skin tone}, cried together when one of us was hurting and we learned to stand together in the midst of hatred being spewed upon us.

I am white....I am middle class....I am female.

But

More importantly, we are all human.  Human beings that have been wonderfully and wholely made.  

I do not, nor will I ever stand on the side of racism.  

I do not, nor will I ever support you if you are slandering anyone because of the color of their skin or the accent of which they speak.

I do not, nor do I ever want to be around you if you continue to blame and shame upon human begins because of the skin tone in which they were created.

I do not, nor will I ever laugh at your jokes when you are bashing someone who has a different life story than you and must work harder than you because they are from a particular neighborhood and have a darker pigment of skin than you or I.

I do not, nor will I ever support hatred.

I do not, nor will I ever support hurting another human being.