Tyrek Johnson,
Burlington, IA
Not very many people know this but I am from Chicago, Illinois. My parents moved to Iowa because they found better jobs and thought that if we moved out of Chicago my brothers and I would have more opportunities than we would have in Chicago. Moving to Iowa was hard for me because I was one of the few black kids at a predominantly white school. As time went on people got used to me being one of the only black kids at school. They would often make jokes about the color of my skin and talk about how I’m different which didn’t bother me. What bothered me was how they touched my hair without permission. I now know that they didn’t understand why my hair had such tight curls but they did not ask and they invaded my space. This happened so often and I never understood why until I realized, white people are not used to black people’s hair texture.
