**Winner of an ILPC Individual Achievement Award: Honorable Mention Personal Opinion Column**

See how other Raiders have experienced racial slurs in the 2018 publication of the Raid coming this month.

As a black person, growing up in the suburbs can be an overwhelming experience. There are not that many people of color in Wylie. It can make one feel out of place like there is no group to fit into.

Walking down the street coming from the park playing basketball with some neighborhood friends, I experienced multiple instances where white teens screamed racial slurs like “ you walking back to the plantation” and “N**ger”  through their car windows. At the age of 9, I didn’t really understand the significance of what they were saying but I knew it wasn’t right. I never told my parents about the situation until this day because what could they really do? And I definitely didn’t want them to walk with me up to the park and back home all the time, so I kept it to myself.

The incident didn’t have a huge impact on me emotionally or physically. I didn’t  know the disrespect of the ‘N’ word. In elementary school, I worried about other things, like bullies and math. It wasn’t that crucial to me. Throughout the years I’ve learned more about racism from my peers at school hearing their stories of times they’ve experienced racial discrimination, how it made them feel, what they did to cope with it, and how to not forget about the situation but to move on from it.

My parents raised me in a way to treat people of all color equally and not to put them down for being different in any way shape or form. Looking back on it, knowing that them being in high school shows that they weren’t mature at all. Fixing the ignorance in people is impossible so making a big deal out of it wouldn’t do anything for me but have built of anger over something I can’t control.