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By Tracie Smith
Hi, my name is Tracie. I'm seven and a half and I'm in second grade. This
is Beth. She's my best friend in the whole world. She's in my class in school
and we do everything together. We like lollipops and stickers. Her favorite
color is red, mine is green and together we make Christmas, which is our
favorite holiday.
I like school. And so does Beth. At school we get to wear dresses and ponytails
everyday. My hair is curly and Beth's is straight. I like her's better.
My favorite subject is math and I hate spelling! Beth likes spelling. At
recess we jump rope or talk to the teacher. After school we walk home together.
One day at school a new girl came. The teacher said that her name is Sharonda
Williams. And she said that we should make friends with her 'cause she was
new and didn't know all about the school. She didn't even know where the
bathroom was. Me and Beth showed her 'cause we'd been going to that school
for two whole years and another half a year. Billy said it was only one
and a half, but I said counting kindergarten it was two and a half. And
you have to count kindergarten 'cause we were there, right? Right.
Anyway, we let Sharonda play with us at recess. She jumped rope good and
then we wanted to show her how to swing on the tire swing, but we had to
go inside and do spelling. YUCK!!
Sharonda played with us everyday and she even sat with us at lunch. She
has brown hair, brown eyes, and curly black hair. Her skin is even browner
than Kristi's and Kristi goes to high school and goes to tanning everyday
after school. And Sharonda doesn't even have two ponytails--she has about
ten of them, all over her head, with beads in them. I tried to get my mom
to make my hair do like that, but she couldn't do it right and I looked
silly. We didn't even have any beads either.
One day I got to school and Beth wasn't there. It was raining outside. Sharonda
was there and she was sad. She was even crying. I asked her what was wrong.
The teacher told me to be quiet and practice my spelling. I had to spell
"night" ten times in a row 'cause I got it wrong once on a test.
She said that Sharonda should go out in the hall with her. They were gone
for a long time. I finished spelling "night," and I should have
been doing my math worksheet, but my tummy felt weird and I wanted to know
where Sharonda was and what was wrong.
Then they came back. Sharonda wasn't crying anymore. I tried to talk to
her, but I got my name on the board. That make me mad. I decided not to
try again 'cause if I got a check by my name then I would hafta sit out
at recess and I would never find out what was wrong. I was quiet but I couldn't
think and I missed five problems on my math paper. It was raining outside
so we went to the gym for recess. The teacher said I had to fix my math
paper before I could play.
Finally it was done. I ran and gave it to the teacher and then looked around
for Sharonda. At first I didn't see her. I was getting really mad. Then
she was there sitting by herself, by the door. I walked over and said, "Hi."
She said, "Hi," too, I sat down beside her. I asked her, "What's
wrong?" "Nuthin," she said, but I knew something was wrong
so I asked her again and I told her to tell me. And then I said please.
Then she told me that she had gone to Target that weekend and her mom and
baby brother, Derrick. And she had seen Beth there. At first I was jealous
and mad 'cause I didn't get to go to Target and even when I did, I did I
didn't see Sharonda there. But then Sharonda told me that Beth's dad had
been there too; and when Beth and waved at Sharonda and started to go and
talk to her, Beth's dad had kicked her hard. And he had boots on and then
he dragged her off by her shirt. And she couldn't talk to Sharonda. I said,
"Why did he do that?" Sharonda told me that her mom had said that
some people are mean and don't like people with brown skin and that's why
Beth's dad had kicked her.
Sharonda was crying again and it was making we want to cry too. But then,
recess was over. When we got back to our room Sharonda's dad was there and
she had to go home, when she wasn't even sick. And I didn't get to say goodbye.
I didn't do any work anymore. And school was no fun. "Why do some people
don't like people with brown skin?" I asked my teacher. She said to
ask my mother when I got home. But I still didn't do any work. I was sad
and questions filled me up so that I couldn't think or spell or even do
math, which I like.
Mommy picked me up at school 'cause it was raining, only not so hard. She
always asked how my day was and when she asked me today, I told her. I said
it was awful 'cause Beth's dad had kicked her in Target all because she
waved at Sharonda and Sharonda's mom said that some people don't like people
with brown skin and so that's why he kicked her. And Beth wasn't at school
and Sharonda's dad came and picked her up after recess and she didn't even
have lunch. And I didn't get to say goodbye. I was crying but I felt better
when I told her, and then I asked her my questions. Why do some people don't
like people with brown skin? And why does Kristi go to tanning everyday
to make her skin brown when people won't even like her when she's done?
And why couldn't Beth be friends with Sharonda even if her dad doesn't like
brown skin? And does that mean that Sharonda and me and Beth can't play
together anymore? I wanted to ask more but I ran out of air and mommy started
talking when I stopped.
She talked slowly so that I could understand that what she was saying was
very important. First, she said that even though Sharonda's skin is brown,
it is called black. And a long time ago people from Africa with black skin
were brought to America even though they didn't want to come. She said that
white people made then come over and work in the fields and that they didn't
even get paid, and they didn't have much food and some white people hit
them if they did wrong. She said that these black people were called slaves.
And white people thought they were stupid. And this lasted for a very long
time. She told me lots about slaves that ran away and got free. And once
there was this man called Abraham Lincoln. he got to be president of the
United States, and he had a war and the slaves were freed with the Mancipation
ProblemNation. But people didn't change too quickly. And some people still
don't like black people. And those people don't want their kids to like
black people.
Mommy told me about Martin Luther King Jr. who had a dream one night about
black kids and white kids playing together at school. I told mom that we
did that all the time, until now. She said that Rev. King Jr. meant that
he wanted all mommies and all daddies to play together too, even the black
ones and the white ones. Then she told me about a black lady who wanted
to sit on the bus 'cause she was tired, but the white people wouldn't let
her. And the lady did it anyway, because grown-ups shouldn't tell other
grown-ups what they should do they should only tell their kids. Mommy said
that these people and other ones were helping to make people understand
about playing together and being nice to each other. I told mommy that I
thought grown-ups were supposed to already know all that stuff. She said
that they were, but sometimes they just wanted to feel more important and
so they were mean to other people. I said, "Oh," but I was still
a little confused.
And then mommy asked me what I knew about Sharonda that I liked. I told
her about Sharonda's older brother, Aaron Michael, and about Sharonda's
hot pink huffy bicycle just like mine. I told her how Sharonda hates spelling
too, but jumps rope better than anyone in all of second grade. And her color
is green. And then mommy told me how all people are different and the same.
Everybody looks different and likes different things, but in some ways they
look the same and like the same things. I told her I already knew that.
Most people have two arms, two legs, and two eyes, and one nose. Some people
are tall or short, some have red hair like me or yellow like Beth or even
black Sharonda. Some people like pink huffy bikes and some like roller skates.
Some people are black and some are white and there are all different colors
in between. And I told her that it probably didn't matter what you look
like, you would still smile at a balloon or talk goofy to a little baby.
And you would still cry when your pet goldfish, Sparky died 'cause he got
stuck on the kitchen floor, and you would lick your fingers after you ate
a double dipped ice cream cone that melted down to your elbows no matter
what you looked like. Mom gave me a big hug then.
And then she asked me if I thought I could still play with Sharonda and
Beth at school. I told her that I really could! Then I was afraid and I
asked if she thought that Sharonda would be mad at Beth and wouldn't want
to play with us anymore. Mommy said no, that she thought Sharonda was a
smart girl and would know that it wasn't Beth's fault that her dad kicked
her and wouldn't let her talk to Sharonda in Target. I thought she was probably
right and then I said, "I bet Kristi likes people with brown skin so
much that she wants to be like them and that's why she goes tanning every
day after school."
Mommy said that maybe that was so. And then she sent me to my room to do
all the work that I had to bring home 'cause I didn't get it done in school.
But before I left she hugged me tight again and told me she was glad I was
me and that I understood the differences between people.
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