Lick My Balls

As a young black male, I find myself at the bottom of the food chain of America or at
least that’s the way it feels. African-Americans are given a bad image on television and other
media. To people who base their opinion on the negative perception we get, we seem like
stupid, dangerous people. I wish it was something I could do to change that but all I can do is
prove the people I know wrong. This is a problem that needs to be changed, but there will always
be ignorant people in the world.

I remember one night while I was walking on my way home, exhausted from playing
basketball. I am in a good mood, just walking and minding my own business. I walk by a couple
of people and smile and greet them. I feel comfortable in my neighborhood, where I usually see
the same people. I feel good when I can see someone I do not know and we can smile and give
our good graces. It makes me feel like there are good people out in the world like me.

Everything is good and going right until I get a block away from my house. As I see this
older Hispanic woman, I prepare myself for a proper greeting. She walks with a hunch and looks
tired and down, like she just got off of work. I want to make her day by saying something nice to
her. To my surprise, as we are about to pass each other, she looks at me with a slight scare on her
face and crosses the street. She probably couldn’t tell by my face, but I was shocked and
extremely bothered. So I continue to ask myself questions. Why did she cross the street? Was it
because I’m black? Do I look dangerous? Did she think I was going to rob her?

I felt offended, hurt and many kinds of negative emotions because of my willingness to
do good goes to waste because someone only sees my skin color. African-Americans have made
so much progress and have been through too much to still be discriminated against in 2011. Now
I feel insecure sometimes about not being good enough because I’m black. I do not want to... [continues]

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