To be Black
She clutches her purse and never lets go the fear in her eyes as I walk into the elevator her eyes dead lock on my every move scrutinizing me up and down,. The thoughts of burglary runs through her mind she keeps still like a statue taking every detail just in case she would have to call the police staring and seeing how I was a 6 foot black male, weighing approximately 300 pounds wearing a of black nike shorts, and with a Michigan shirt and hat. I push the elevator button up and as it goes up a silent battle starts in that small box a battle of racism and stereotypes. Any boy could fit that description and no one would be fazed about if it was another race but when it comes to a black male the bells and whistles go off. The struggles with being a black male can go as far as slavery how the plantation owners and his assistants would beat and desensitize us causing the spirit of the black male to have a lost and broken spirit making the black male hopeless for a future but instead were being treated like wild animals. But lucky in Sept 22, 1862 lincoln made the emancipation proclamation that freed every African American person from slavery the first time in a long time it really felt like we as a people had a chance to be free and be consider a part of american citizen but that was short lived as the years went by a new form of racism and judgment which was none other than segregation.
This practice which was practiced in all of america but mostly done in the south things such as lynching, having dogs and being sprayed by water hose and so many other horror causing the spirit of are black bothers so many of them in a state of brokenness and uncertainty. Fast forward a couple of generations later and even though there has been some really great
changes the demons are still there lingering in the atmosphere sitting and waiting trying to break down every black male like me.The feeling of always being looked at like a dirty animal instead of a human being, having to always act like everything's ok and put on face when people say things that make you either uncomfortable or make us having to bite are tongues it's like being a bird that can only fly so far. Even though it hard to face this reality this motivates me as a black male to go and do above and beyond with everything i do whether it's being a battalion commander in my Jrotc class or in my Bio-Med class at my high school I always remember the African american males throughout history that went through so much to be Greater than they were supposed to be.