Reflective Essay On Racism

Being bullied. Reflecting on when I was in grades k-12, I realized that I had a unique experience. I grew up in an area that had an over 80 percent Hispanic population; I was essentially a minority. Not being able to speak Spanish and clearly having a different cultural background and skin color, I was subjected to bullying. I often resented my last name, Clifford, because I acquired the childhood nickname, “Clifford the big, white dog”. Many kids who thought they were being clever, but were actually being hurtful, referred to me by this phrase. However, while I felt oppressed as one of the few white people in my school and therefore being bullied because of it, I gained a first-hand experience of how it feels to be perceived and treated like an “other”, and this made an impact on my life (Tatum, 2008, p.17).
Family ignorance. Because of my childhood, I think of myself as a person who has compassion and understanding

Growing up as someone who looked differently from the majority in the community, and was therefore picked on because of it, provided me with perhaps a different lens for viewing the world in regard to diversity. What I did not understand fully until college, were the privileges that my racial group had and that people of color did not have. Much like McIntosh (1998) reiterates, white my privilege was not something that I had been raised to think about. Having been the minority and the subject of discrimination growing up, becoming the majority on a college campus was a difficult experience for me to say the least. But during this time, I realized how important it is to be an advocate for myself and for those who do not always have the power to advocate for themselves. This rings even more true to me now that I have a child who is biracial (white and Mexican) and in-laws who are subjected to cruel discrimination because they are