For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the senior African-American Literature class at South was asked to respond to a prompt related to the themes of the class. Because February is Black History Month, Denebola is posting one of these essays a day until the end of the month so as to start a conversation about race outside the classroom. The prompt is as follows:
“In about 500 words, tell the story of a personal experience that relates in some way to the ideas and themes of this class. You should spend the majority of the piece telling the story, and the end should explain clearly what the story shows about a theme or idea from the class.”
By Maria Shallop
“I am not any different from the white man standing in line waiting on security to check his luggage and clear him out to board his flight.” I will always remember the soft look my brother had on his face when he said that. I was ten years old. “To me, you guys look the same,” I would say. He laughed and said, “We don’t look the same, because if we did I would not be waiting out here to get questioned about why I am entering Belgium, but one thing I know is we are the same.” I never understood what my brother meant. A year later I figured it out. Simon meant that the white guy and himself had completely different appearances, but one thing they had in common was both of them were humans.
Simon has a full grown dark beard with lazy dark brown eyes and a structured jaw and cheekbones. I would say Simon has the look of a typical Middle Eastern man. Ever since Simon was 16 years old, he has had a full grown beard and would get weird looks at the airport because of this. Simon grew to be embarrassed of this and would shave his beard every time he was going to travel. He began to have a complex about his looks and felt insecure in some cases. As soon as Simon turned 18, we moved to Guinea West Africa with our parents in search of greener pastures. I would say during our stay in Guinea Simon began to gain some confidence. In Africa, they treat black and white people a little differently. In Africa, we are seen as white people, and in Europe, we are considered “sand niggers.” Simon was able to escape the situation where he would be treated and looked at differently due to his appearance. As soon as Simon was beginning to enjoy Guinea, his life came to a pause when our parents informed us that we had to move back to Europe. He was so afraid of going back.
A couple weeks later we moved back to Belgium. Simon became depressed; he had anxiety attacks. The situation worsened for him when he had to go to school. The Belgian kids were cruel. Simon received malicious racial slurs. I concretely remember Simon coming home being very upset one afternoon. He said the kids at school told him to stop
looking like a 40 year old man, and that he should dye his hair blonde and shave his beard. This ate up all the confidence he had built and developed in Guinea. He had to learn to adjust all over again. Simon decided to isolate himself from people. Keeping his distance and building a wall, he became extremely depressed. Simon faced discrimination and had to face the fact that he was not part of the Belgians. My family noticed this and with careful consideration decided to move back to the United States–Boston to be exact, as we resided there before moving to Guinea and Belgium.
Boston was a lot different than Belgium for Simon. He was accepted; he was happy, and he felt he belonged in his university. He found friends who accepted him, and he met a beautiful young lady who changed his life and became his future wife. Even though sometimes when Simon travels he is stopped at the airport to be checked in a private room because of his appearance, it does not bother him much because he has learned that is how the world is. People are being discriminated against because of how they look and where they are from. I am glad to say Simon has found peace in Boston and overcome his one fear–being treated differently.
