The only real racial discrimination I’ve ever seen was in the Catholic grade school here in Springfield. By 4th grade it was pretty much decided whether you were popular, really unpopular or just sort of okay. I didn’t realize until later grades that children that came from homes with “money” were popular and treated well by the nuns. I was definitely not one of those children; I was raised by a single parent and we had very little money. It was around 6th or 7th grade that a boy came as a new student to this school. Most of the children were actually pretty mean to about 2-3 other children in the class and someone new was definitely not accepted. I never realized it till later but maybe there was instant discrimination because the new boy’s last name was of Hispanic origin; although I don’t think you could tell that just by looking at him. These kids didn’t need much reason to be cruel though, that’s just the way it was. I remember it bothered me they way they treated him, maybe more than it upset me on how they treated me . They treated him worse than they treated me and one or two other kids. I always went out of my way to try to talk to him, but he just became more and more quiet, withdrawn or other times angry. Then one day I remember being inside after recess and looking out the windows into the yard. The boy and about 10 other boys were the only ones left in the recess area. Looking out I seen them like surround him and they all began fighting, ganging up on him. I remember yelling for someone to stop it, asking the nun who was my teacher to do something. I never felt that she even was that upset (she was the meanest of all the nuns in that school). It was finally stopped.
The next day we were told that the boy’s mother had pulled him from the school. I remember the nun briefly talked about how the boys had attacked him; she seemed a little disgusted with the boys that did it, but that was all that was over said. I never understood why or how this kind of cruelty could happen, especially in a place that is supposed to be about God. (In eight years, I seen little sign of God’s love from the children or the nuns)
Over the years I would run into the boy. He was always nice if not kind of quiet; I always felt a deep sadness over what had happened. In my later 20’s I found out through other friends that he was doing drugs (like shooting up drug). I was so sickened by this and remember once or twice trying to talk to him when I’d run into him and asking him why. It makes me want to cry to this day. Over the years, I ran into some of these kids while out partying and several have pulled my aside to apologize about how they treated me. I always wondered if any of them ever apologized to him. About 4-5 years ago I heard that he died of a drug overdose. Although this school has 8th grade reunions every 5-10 years, I have no desire to go or even return their calls.
I had a similar incident happen to me at my school, except that I was the one who was singled out and hated upon. Throughout grade school, I had 3 best friends and we would always hangout together. However, once we entered sixth grade, they all stopped hanging out with me or even talking to me one day out of the blue. To this day, I do not know what I did to cause this, and it still bothers me thinking what if I did something wrong. No one deserves to be singled out like that, it is something that I hope I never have to experience again.
ReplyDeleteNora this seems almost unbelievable to me! That nuns would discriminate against yourself or a minority name. How did they know how much money that you or anyone had? It's sad that many people are discriminated against. It usually takes one person and the rest follow or one person to stand up and the rest stop. I can't picture ten boys surrounding one boy, that's almost more like an ignorant,abusive gang would act.Prejudice exists in many forms: it could be through words or actions. I'm sorry you felt that you discriminated against, but you persevered and learned from the actions of others. If you look hard enough you will be able too see times when you have prejudiced against individuals. I didn't realize the many times that i have and didn't recognize it at the time.
ReplyDeleteNora, this story really hit home for me, because I too saw the exact same behavior from the nuns and other teachers at the high school I went to. If your family gave a lot of money to the school or was just known to be wealthy, you were treated well. The only reason I was even able to attend the school is because I received half off of my tuition because my step father was the buildings and grounds manager for the school. But my step dad working there was also a weakness for me; he was not a teacher or a coach, he was the guy that mowed the lawns and fixed the pipes, so the teachers and nuns knew that my family did not have money. They also knew that I had gone to public school all my life up until high school, so I think thats another reason I was never treated with much respect in high school. I was never on the inside, always on the outside trying to be a part of the already established, wealthy group of people who virtually ran the school. I know now that this was blatant discrimination, but at the time it just made me feel ashamed.
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