rasical proflining
JDub said:
Yo Chopical, I feel for you bruh. I'm fortunate that my high school teachers weren't that bad, but I've heard alot of experiences like yours. My advice to you would be to not sweat people like that because those people are lost in their ignorance. They are so caught up in their racism and prejudices that they can't really see people for who they are. BTW that stereotype is true and has been proven in many scientific studies.
{{{don't get me wrong, i'm not sayingthat crime isn't higher in dominican communties, i know that it is higher there tahn in white ones. C'mon I have Washington Heights Home Of The Haze Shirts, I know that WH has more drugs than suburbs. I read and follow statistics }}}
I'm not saying that the sterio type isn't true in other communities, I know for certian that it wasn't true in my community. The teachers feared that crime would go up, it didn't, they were afraid drugs would be brought in, but it wasn't.
Fearing that is one thing, but they didn't keep their opinion to themselves. They made it known, it was blatently obvious. If anything it made me want to do shit just to spite them. Fu<kin' self fullfilling profacy. They looked at me like I was just a poor uneducated minority and I felt that way. I felt like I would never amount to anything, like I would end up rooting away in a jail cell-just like they wanted me to be. Felt like they wanted nothing more than to see me locked up. I felt like I wouldn't make anything of myself, I couldn't see the reason to go on living if I would always be held back and opressed. It was hell.
I grew up in Bergenfield New Jersey, it's just ten miles from Washington Heights/DRCentral/Dominican Heights. I have a choice of the 186, 11C, 178, and spanish Buses to get there. It's like 5 minutes away by car and 20 by bus.
Anyhow as history goes, inner cities are the places that foreigners migrate to first, usually after a few generations, and making a little bit of money they work their way up to the suburbs.
Bergenfield was white and suburban when my parents moved there in the late 70's or early 80, I grew up and it started slightly diversifying. There were a few, like 2 or 3 people of color (in my grade) when I was in Elementry School. In middle school all of the elementry schools were mixed together from the town.
I had gone to Lincoln School, "The Wealthy School" then in middle school we had other students with us from other parts of the town, we had Hover School "The Poor People" there too. Hover was at the poor end of town and thats where the PR's were and other people of color such as Philipinos and a few indians. (In america it seems that either people think your mexican or PR-or at least that's what i've experienced). Anyhow everyone had their cliques cliques already made. Since I had gone to Lincoln school which was like 90% white that's just what my friends were, that was what the kids on my block were, just out of circumstance. I had casually made friends with other races, I had a few PR friends and indians. Anyhow, still not even my middle school was "diverse."
When I got to highschool it still was pretty much all white and the minorities kept to themselves. I had my small and tight group of friends who I held dear, I had a diverse group, non trouble makers. The school was fine.
Then my senior year of highschool Dominicans showed up, it was half of the freshman class-dominicans. Pratically every freshman was either was dominican or wanted to be dominican, (best recruiting that I have ever seen!!!) (Some of them had older siblings who were in upper classes). Dom's just blew up the place, totally took it over, like they owned it. They came in like nobodys business. They were so cool. They were so confident and strong. So impressive. (Which really must have scared the teachers.)
Dom's took me in under their wing, accepted me, and befriended me. I felt great! I started to really love highschool. Some of my friends, who were in with the dominican group, because they took in anyone and everyone, gave my image a whole new make over. I started dressing differently, talking differently, using different words, I had a whole new style. DR Style. I couldn't have been happier. My friends brought me to Washington Heights/Paradise. I loved it perhaps a bit too much.
Since I had been spending so much time with Dom's the teachers put me into the same catagory. To them Dominican and Felone was interchangable. They'd see a dominican they'd automatically think that she or he was a felone as well as anyone who was in with that group. The struggle that I had to go threw in highschol was beacuse I was with doms but i don't blame then at all, sooner or later my bubble would have bursted and i would have had to face it. I'm just glad that it was with them. after the teachers did what they did to me, it just brought me closer to dom's, i neeeded them i turned to them and they helped me get threw it. i susspect they all had been going threw that their whole entire life. it's heart breaking.
The teachers, like pratically all the other rascist people I have came across in my life, thought that they were well educated and informed ironically they couldn't have been more wrong. Falsely accusing people of crimes, as they had done to me-which my
mother questioned me on, just causes people to give up and turn to illegal business. Whether it is out of spite or a self full filling profacy, if you accuse somoene of something (for whatever reason-fear) then you maybe pushing them to do that even more. it's a fuked up world we live in.
Oh yeah here is a very interesting story on my highschool:
http://www.newworlddisorder.ca/blog/2002_06_23_nwd-blog_archive.html
"The Bergenfield High School students two 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old allegedly got the heart from a biology class and put it in the substitute English teacher's cup June 13. The teacher drank from the cup but did not consume the heart. The woman later left school when she began to feel ill, unaware that she had ingested formaldehyde."
*Edit: Formaldehyde is an embalming fluids, if you drink it will turn you into a zombie-it causes the body muscles to do shit which causes a zombie like state. I had suspected that that was what was put into the teachers cup when I had heard about the pig on the news *
I had been friends with the 17 year old who did that. Perez had been behind it all but it took a long time for that to come out. He had gotten two other students, who were white to drop it in. They all got suspended, including Perez. Since he was a top athlete he got off so easy. He always had an edge to him, he didn't take crap and was notorious. He was a cool guy though.
I had first heard that story when I was at college. It was on the news and they were saying it was a prank that had gone wrong. But I knew it was something deeper than that. It was like an all out war in my highschool. I knew for sure that it wasn't any prank and it wasn't.
Perez was smart as hell (which is why he is going to a good college now) and knew what he was doing. Of course, they didn't say his name on TV. When I got back home and talked to my cousin she gave the story. I feel that "the prank" was Perez's way of retaliating against the teachers, he probably felt that he was justified and in a way he may have been.
Obviously attempting to poisin your teacher/oppresser is not the best solution, success is the best revenge. Proves what they say is wrong but sadly statistics show there are glass celings preventing peoples from suceeding. And "the prank" was Perez's way of fighting back.
Every time I think about it, it remends me of an episode of 100 Centre steet where a very similar sitation had happened in Washington Heights. basically 100 was a ghetto version of Law And Order.
Edit: Oh yeah I'm not Dominican, I'm colombian but I was treated as if I were Dominican in highschool by my teachers as was everyone and anyone who was friends with Dom's. I felt that this could contribute to the board and posibly help answer disdominican's question.