Darlene
The biggest question I think of is "why is representation not important?". It is so sad that many of our black children has nor may never experience being educated by someone who looks like them. Our children need to see themselves in positive roles in society, not just negative ones. Without representation, our boys and girls will think that jobs such as teachers, principals, engineers, scientists are so out of reach when in reality they are not. I want my son and others to not only see themselves at home but in jobs and careers, they never dreamt of. Could you imagine what it would do to self-esteem, motivation, grades, aspiration, my word there would be such a shift in our communities and not only for now but generations and generations to come.
My first memory of an English school was sitting in my year two class while the older students question me on why my accent was so different and if my sister was my full sister. Now being a little island girl in Trinidad I had never in my life until that point been questioned about myself and my sister's biological connection. They just could not fathom that I and my eldest sister had the same mum and dad. I later found out that they asked because our skin complexion and hair texture was different so we could not possibly come from the same parents. I look back on this experience and it honestly is a joke. I went from being educated by people who looked like me to only seeing one black member of staff. This continued to secondary school and again being question on family connections this time it was if my cousins were related to me and my sister as they looked white because we could not possibly be related how absurd. In education, I felt that I had a stereotype hovering over me that I could not shake and unfortunately, I lived up to most by the time I reached year 9. It never seemed like the teachers cared so it was no bother to them just one less “naughty black kid” to focus on. I felt let down but then equally I let myself down.
As a mother of a young boy who is of mixed heritage I am afraid, I am afraid because the world sees our boys as big men because they are broader or taller than the average ( I’ve personally looked at the same picture as a white colleague and her first impression of when seeing the young black boy was that he looks huge when in reality this young man was no taller than 5”3 and of a small frame). My son is fair skin and when he was born everyone would comment on his skin complexion. It made me so uncomfortable because to me I thought he was beautiful, but his colour was and still is a topic of conversation. I tell him he is beautiful, unique, building him up every day reading books to reinforce a sense of pride and educate him.
I grew up with many complexes and I will do everything in my God-given power to not allow this to be my son’s reality. I continue to push him harder and create experiences for him, so he gets used to experiencing different cultures and gains knowledge not just from school. My son will one day grow up to be a God-fearing, educated, well-mannered motived black man who will change the world. And if I can help support students of all background creed or colour to achieve then I am winning.
