African American in a white space by Dejiah

African American in a white space by Dejiah - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

I was born and raised in white plains, New York and I attended pocantico hills central school. Pocantico is a predominantly white school from pre-k through 8th grade. I attended pocantico from prek-6th grade. My time at pocantico was very unoriginal or as I like to call it my little phase. I was one of the only black girls some times only one in my class. I’ve always felt out of place, especially whenever it came to hair styles, what I wore, who I spoke to, what I would speak about, and how I acted. When I was going to pocantico I wanted to look like the white girls. I wanted my hair to be straight when I got it wet, I wanted to listen to that Katy pary or Taylor swift. I never really got to fully understand my culture at the time because I simply didn’t care. I wasn’t worried about learning about my culture. At a point in time it made me feel uncomfortable to really try and be myself because all my friends were white and I simply wanted to “fit in.” Whenever it was time to talk or read about slavery, you can guess who everyone looked at. Small things like that always made me feel uncomfortable and at the time the only reason that was obvious at the time was that I was the only one in the class to resemble or look like them in their eyes. At that time I didn’t know I could embrace that or be appreciative of that. It wasn’t until I found out I was moving down south to Atlanta Georgia. When I learned that I then started to hear how there would be more black people down south, I was nervous but at the same time I was so excited. I didn’t want to leave my family of course but thinking about the fact that I would be around more people who look like me and I can finally learn about culture and not feel uncomfortable all the time. When July of 2019 came it was time to move and I started 7th grade in August. I met a group of black girls and instantly clicked, and when it came to what I was wearing and my hairstyles, you definitely saw a difference. I am currently a 2025 high school graduate who will be attending Clark Atlanta university in the fall and moving down south was a big part of my identity change and my college decision.