Jessica,
CA.

I am a white female living in California with my white family. I grew up in an area where I was one of a few white girls in my school. I made friends of all different races and came to understand the benefits of diversity, however, it wasn’t always a pleasant experience. I was bullied by girls who were both Mexican and black. They called me names like, “stupid white girl,” and made fun of my freckles and pale skin. Many girls would laugh and say things about me in Spanish because they knew I couldn’t understand. I would come home crying to my mom because I was not a fighter and would never have done anything to fight back. My mom would tell me to ignore them, but it only made it worse. A group of black girls even threatened to jump me after school and I would hide in the bathrooms. These experiences made middle school and some of high school pretty miserable, but yet because I am white I am always treated like a racist. If I am racist then why is it that I was bullied so badly by other races when I never bullied anyone because of their race? If I speak on the matter, I am ignorant and people say that only white people can be racist, not other races. In other words, I am privileged so I can’t speak out about how people treated me. I find that to be really sad. It shouldn’t matter what color you are: racism is racism. If you dislike someone simply because of their skin color, you should be called a racist. But if I point this out, I am simply someone who can’t see beyond my white privilege.