Racial Autobiography

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I was born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky on June 25, 1967. I was spent the majority of my life in Clarksville, TN and Fort Jackson, SC. Those two places were worlds apart when it came to introducing me to the ways of world. They showed me the world from two different perspectives, which also shaped the way I looked at people. I learned that race is the only difference between people, and skin color plays no part in the makeup of a person.
When people here that I was from Tennessee they immediately think that I grew up in the country. People would picture me growing up a farm, milking cows and feeding chickens. Growing up in Tennessee was fun to me. I was surrounded by a close knit family, which protected me and showered me with love. Clarksville …show more content…
The first day of school came and I was kind of nervous, I had never interacted with kids of another race. In class we were given the option of choosing our own seats, of course; I took a seat next to the only other black kid in class. This made me feel a little more comfortable for the moment. The kid I sat next to was named Johnathan. I asked him his name, he said’ “I’m Johnathan”; I told him my name was Gerald. He asked, “where was I from’, I told him Tennessee. So he says, “Did I live on a farm?” I was like no; I lived in the PJ’s. He was like what are the PJ’s? I told him that it was the projects, he never understood but we made it work. I asked Johnathan, “had he ever been around kids of another race? he said, “no”. So we went through the day just watching the other kids, seeing how they talked with each other and got along. Recess came and we went out to play. We stay away from the other kids for the most part. John and I were throwing the football when some of the other kids asked to play kickball. We declined a few times, but we both wanted to play. We eventually joined the game, mind you I still didn’t speak to the other kids just Johnathan, it was fun to just run and play. Slowly the other kids started asking our names and Johnathan and I did the same. Come to find out they were just as curious as we were. Once the wall came down I found out they were just kids like me. We all liked the same things, but our race made us different. As the school year progressed we all became very good friends. We understood that our skin color was the only difference between
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