Two Racial Discrimination Events in My Life

In all my twenty years as a black male in the United States of America, I can only recall two instances where I felt I was wronged because of my race. Though both are just part of my history now, they still make me sick to my stomach when I think about them. The first one I recall was when my family and I traveled to Orlando, Florida to celebrate my high school graduation in June of 2000. I was enjoying myself at first but it all went down the toilet one day when we decided to spend the day in one of the various amusement parks.

We left our hotel early one morning to have breakfast before we visited Universal Studios. We went to this nice restaurant, whose name I cant recall, maybe it was Racism Chicken and Waffles, and we noticed we were likely the only black family there. Not only that but it seemed that everybody there seem to notice as well because we were getting some very interesting looks.

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Im pretty use to fielding some weird looks since I was a awkward and sometimes clumsy teen, but thats not why some were staring, I had done nothing awkward or clumsy, and that made the hair on my arms stand up. Then after we were seated a waitress took our orders. She tried to sell us some fake warmth but I wasnt buying, I could tell it was an feint by looking at her demeanor, I thought I saw her roll her eyes a few times.

Though she wasnt saying it verbally, she was more than screaming it physically, that is that we didnt belong there. We ate there despite the uneasiness, besides why let it ruin the vacation, we were there to have fun.

Then came part of the day were we actually were inside the amusement park, Universal Studios. Now I wont say it was everybody, but once again I was getting looks that were making me feel totally uncomfortable. It honestly made me think that they had never seen a black person before in their entire lives. What really got under my skin more than anything was when some of them would pull their children and valuables in when I approached them. I just thought to myself, Why the hell would I want kids when I can barely take care of myself? It didnt really stop either, in fact after a while I was thinking of writing: thats right I m black, in bold font on the front of my shirt. I just couldnt fully enjoy myself because I felt like such an outsider. Even though two years have passed, I still have a bitter taste in my mouth when I recall that vacation.

The other such incident, which I shared in class, happened just last summer when me and three friends were hanging out downtown. We were at a Japanese Animation Convention called Otakon, which takes place at the Baltimore Convention Center every summer. We decided we would walk to one of the surrounding eating establishments instead of paying outrageous prices to eat in the convention center. We walked to Burger King at first but we left since we certainly wouldnt have ate until we were like eighty-five. We then came to this pizza restaurant, whose name I dont remember, maybe it was the Racist Slice. Anyway, my friends and I decided to put our money together and get an entire pizza instead ordering separate and spending more money. We step up to the counter and told the manager what we wanted, and he told us he doesnt sell whole pizzas.

We thought that sounded strange but we let it go and ordered separately. We sat down at a table with our orders, and started eating, joking with one another as we always did. Then we saw the manger of the restaurant taking a whole pizza to a table of white teenagers. We confronted him about it and he basically blew us off. When we left that place we all were pretty pissed off. It just seem to kill all the fun and good times we were having before we entered that place. We just couldnt believe that had just happened to us. Every time that I think about race and how it makes people act when they interact with someone different from them, I walk away feeling clueless. I just dont get how some as small a skin color can inspire people to act ignorant to one another. Though I can only recall two times when my race seemed to cause a conflict, I hear stories from peers that are just horrible.

Though we have come a long way, race still seems to be way too important, and still causes to many conflicts. I remember a picture of a group of superheros that I saw not to long ago and I remember the one thing that stood out or should I say didnt stand out. It was only one black hero in that picture and he was hidden, like the artist didnt want him there. How many black superheros are there anyway? Like I always say to my friends, I guess black people are never the victims of freak accidents. Then the few we have seem to lack that heroic integrity. Im just ranting now so I will just close this by saying that I hope the human race envolves and realizes the fact that character content decides who is superior not race.