Reflection on my Education

Rae,

In response to your question, I think that race affects one's schooling in so many ways.  The first, and most insidious, is what I understand Serena to be talking about.  If I understand our country's history correctly, our nation was built on the enslavement and oppression of blacks, and a narative was put in place that possitioned white land owners above all others.  Even as strides were made toward legislative equallity, that narrative was still there and I think that it had a terrible effect on our culture in general, and on each race's attitude toward themselves and others.  whites were made to believe that they were somehow inherently superior and entitled, while many blacks and other minorities were made to feel powerless and inferior.  That legacy has kept many black Americans in poverty for centuries.

While I can't even pretend to know what it is like to be black in America, I do know what it is like to constantly be told that you are inferior.  People often deal with that in one of two ways.  They either internalize the talk and begin to fulfill it by allowing it to dictate their own self view, or they rise above it.  In a system that seeks to keep the balance of power the same as it always has been, rising above the racial divide can be extremely difficult, if not impossible.  Again, while I have no idea what it is actually like to experience racial oppression, I do know what is like to be faced with what seem like impossible odds and I think that many people in the black community continue to cope with those odds by just trying to survive.  When survival is the first thing on your mind, it's easy to resent and ridicule those who seem to be concerned with things whch do not serve that survival.  From a purely theoretical outsider's perspective, I think that sort of resentment is one of the things that fueled the way you were treated in your past schooling.  

I also hope that your experience at Bryn Mawr is better.

-Shannon