Personal Narrative: I Am Black

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I am Black. I am African. I am advocate for LGBTQ+. I am a daughter. I am great friend. I am female. I am a sister. I am against animal cruelty and testing. I am very friendly. I am welcoming of any and every one from different backgrounds and religions and I am great friend. Only 4 of those statements people will look over. The rest of those statements someone will judge me for it. Someone will look at me differently. Someone will treat me differently. I have seen and experienced this first hand and I have also overcome it. It was summer 2014, my mom signed me up for swimming team. My swim teacher was male and for this story we will call him Mr. Jay. Our swim team meet up every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and sometimes Saturday for practice. …show more content…

Jay had all the students in his class do laps and races and test so he could see who was the best at one thing or another. I had one of the fastest times in one of the events but he never let me play when we had friendly competition with other swim places. Also in practice, it would seem he always had his eye on me and what I was doing wrong. One day I went up to him and asked him if I could play that day and he said “You aren't ready to go up against them”. I had asked him why he thought that way, it said something along the lines of I wasn’t faster, stronger, or even better than the people he did let play. One practice I forgot my earphones in the locker room and to walk over there I had to walk past the swim coach’s offices. I my coach said “That is why I won’t let that black girl play”. The thing is, I was the only black student there. That one statement hit hard. When did I just become “that black girl”? When did I lose my name and my civil right to be called by that? That night I told my mom I felt like that swim place wasn’t challenging me enough. Ever since that moment I have had a fire in my heart not to be just known as “that black girl” to make a name for

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