I survived the white flight.

Misty Johnson,
Lilburn, GA.

I moved to Georgia in 1988 when I was 8 years old. My father left his job on the oil rigs to start his own landscaping company in Lithonia, Georgia. I was a minority at my elementary school back in Texas, which was predominately Hispanic. The move to Atlanta was different because of the largeer African American population. After a year or so of living in the suburban neighborhood, all of the white people started moving. My family didn’t have the means to move but within a year and a half I was the only white girl in my class in school. My nickname was actually white girl at one point and I really absorbed the African America culture. I even went so far as to get braids in my hair to look like Janet Jackson from Poetic Justice. (Loved that movie) There is no way anybody can ever tell me that race does not play a role in who you are or how you are perceived. Who I’am today was shaped by by my childhood of being around different cultures and races.