Being Referred to as Half Breed - Essay Example

Being referred to as ‘Half Breed’ I grew up in African during the first ten years of my life. I attended one of the best schools at the time until I was half way the grade school when one day my father told me that we would be flying away to a new continent –North America. Apparently, I was supposed to meet my mother who I never knew about except from the numerous communication that existed between her and my father. I was later to learn that my parents had met in North America while my father was on official duty for a period not less than one and half years. At the time, my supposed mother worked in one of the hotels where my father frequented during his trips. That is how I was born - to an African father and a white mother. My father and I arrived in Toronto, Canada during the Christmas holiday immediately after I had graduated from grade school. This meant that the following year I would join the intermediary schools in Toronto. When the day finally come to pass, I was enrolled to one of the best schools in the city, little did I know that my complexion would turn to be a subject for both the teachers and students. Initially, in the class where I was enrolled, I was the only student who was entirely black in respect to complexion and one who had parent from mixed races. I was later to learn that the school only attended children from parents who were influencial in the society, which meant that my mother was one of them. Barely a month after my enrolment at the school, I had numerous pretentious friends who came around to mock me on my complexion. However, my parents kept encouraging to ignore them and concentrate with my studies. I paid attention to the advice half heartedly until one of my classmates addressed me as ‘Miss Half Breed’. From there onwards, I was convinced that something was terribly wrong with me, my complexion and my parents. Apparently, I decided to do my own research to find out the meaning of the word. Indeed, half breed was an offensive word that was used to refer to a person who had parents from two different races especially one white parent and a black parent. The discovery of the word shocked my heart to the extremes of wanting my parents to move me to another school, but my mother remained ignorant on the issue. Soon, half of the school including a few teachers took up the offensive word as a way to address me. Basically, my new school had entirely become a ‘living hell’. It is worth mentioning that ‘Half Breed’ is one of numerous offensive words that are used in countries such as, the United States where there are numerous different races living together. In most cases, the two races do not respect each other and the level of racism is relatively high. In addition, the issue of racism discrimination has been rampant since the slave and colonial eras. During those days, the state imposed extreme burdens on Native Americans, Africa Americans, Asian Americans, and Europeans Americans among others. In fact, most of the white people living in United States have continually had prejudices that are against other races. In light of this, being a child of parents from mixed races especially with my father coming from Africa meant that we were not typical whites and hence we were not allowed to enjoy some of the many privileges that were continually been enjoyed by the whites. If anything, those who happened to be in positions where they would afford some of the privileges such as, good schools were denied enrolment and those who were lucky enough to join such schools like me would receive open criticism and ridicule that automatically led to one or numerous painful experiences. In this regard, it become clear to me that the offensive word that I had acquired from my fellow classmates, and the teachers was a result of socially unacceptable behaviors that had been learnt from their parents and those that had been carried through from other generations in the past. Therefore, been a product of two different races meant that I was automatically entitled to such kind of treatment whenever I was around the whites. As such, my research revealed that it was not possible to fight this unsocial behavior because, I and other blacks were perceived as foreigners who did not have the right to mix with whites or even have opportunities in education and employment in the United States. Needless to mention, the coincidence of been the only black in the school continued to be a nightmare to me as I did not have anyone whom we shared the same skin color. With time, I was able to adapt to the mockery and ridicule that I was facing from the fellow classmates as a result of the constant encouragements I received from my parents. At a point, I was expected to respond to this offensive word which had entirely wiped out my real name. I became entirely used to the name ‘Miss Half Breed’ and adopted it as my school identity except for the few occasions when I was expected to use my real name. It was the only way to handle the situation. Moreover, those who dared to listen and care enough had the opportunity to know that despite being black in complexion, I was born to a native white mother and as such was entitled to similar privileges as those they had. In a general sense, no one is important than the other in terms of race. Everyone has the right to education, employment, health facilities among other services. The emergence of racism in the United State’s society is not only an unsociable behavior but one that culminated to the emergence of offensive words. I maintain my innocence as a child from parents of mixed race and would not want to be referred to as ‘Half Breed’ anytime in the remaining days of my life! Read More