Perception and Reality by Jordan

Perception and Reality by Jordan - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

In this world of racial and social tension, it would be easy to forget that behind these heated debates are people, and in my case, young people who have been caught in the cross-fire of a war that was started long before they were born. You have the Black Lives Matter movement, which to some, may seem like a whining racial song that never ends- but in reality, there is some truth to its uprising. As a young black man, attending college and away from home for the first time, I am reminded of the first time that I was looked at by society as an adult – and not a child. I first noticed the transition when I would walk into a store by myself and people would not necessarily greet me the same way they did when I was younger, and had fat cheeks, and a baseball cap on my head. Back then, they would stop (both male and female, black and white) my mom and say “He is so cute” and “Ah, mom, he is adorable”. However now as my 6ft frame enters the door, eyes dart nervously toward me, no one greets me hardly with a smile. Sometimes they walk in the other direction, sometimes I am avoided. I remember the time I had to pick my mother up from a class she took at the university and being followed half-way there by a police officer who, probably thought I looked suspicious driving around in a car I got for my birthday, with a hoodie on. But the truth was, it was cold that night, and I did not have time to warm up the car and mom was waiting. Or the time during the summer I was walking down the street and a man walking towards me looked at me as if I were a criminal, until he read the writing on my sweatshirt, that had my mother’s university name on it, and once he read it, just gave me a quick “Oh!” and “how are you?”
The truth is, I am still that kid with the fat cheeks and the baseball cap that you would go out of your way to engage in conversation with when I was younger – I just grew up physically- but I am still here.