Amanda Becker
Clarksville, TN
Race has been the dominant subject of my life. I am the only white person on my page in my Senior yearbook (in north St. Louis). It wasn’t a racially harmonious experience, there were times which were downright ugly, usually because I looked like someone who made you mad, but I wouldn’t go back and change a thing. The ugly times were few and far between, the bigger picture provided a well-grounded, beautiful experience. I learned a crucial lesson I wouldn’t have learned otherwise, and feel a strong sense of responsibility to the next generation regarding this subject. I don’t know how I can make things better, but have fought like heck to try. Beginning with representing my community well. When people make comments after they learn where I am from, I correct them/make them laugh in spite of their misconceptions. As a thirty-something, I can now appreciate the brevity of 20 years. I can now look back and appreciate, that as a child in the 80s, how teachers in my community tried to explain that the Civil Rights Era had really JUST happened, and that people sacrificed much so that we could go to school together. I have seen alot, some things suprise me in a good way, some not. I have, and continue to dedicate my life to looking for opportunity to make this better somehow. I desparately want a future where my children will be in a racially diverse setting, and not give any thought to the racial diversity of the setting.
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