Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
My consciousness of being discriminated as far as disability was concerned came about
in my adult years as opposed to my growing up years. I thought it was a cool thing to
be in my classroom. In a lot of ways I still think that. My parents kind of protected me.
I was very conscious of people staring at me as I moved outside of my neighborhood,
but I didn’t think anything about that. It never was brought to my attention that
that was the reason why they were staring at me. I was never to feel different by my
family. Therefore in my mind that translated to general society. They were staring at me
because I was worth looking at or at least that’s the way I perceived at. Now in my
adult years I realized that they were being rude and that they were staring at me because
of the disability and because of the way I move and because of the sound of my voice
and all of that. But when I was growing up it was no big deal. Now I realize that we
are discriminated against everyday. I grew up learning that I had to be better than everybody
else and in a way that’s discrimination in itself. But I grew up thinking that because
I was African American that’s what people instilled in their kids because of segregation.
You will have to be better than anyone to be equal. Now of course the barriers…the
physical barriers were there. Very evident in high school in that it was the first black
high school built in Atlanta and there were five floors and no elevators of course, and
I had to climb stairs just like anyone else. Teachers that didn’t want me in their class
because they thought I’d be extra trouble. There was one incident in high school…I
should say I was never belittled by the kids I went to school, the regular ed kids I went
to school mainly because of the elementary school I attended. It was…once the initial
class was established they decided to break us up into two groups in my class moved over
to Oglethorpe elementary school which was a brand new school and they had several special
ed classes. One for us, one for kids who were visually impaired one class for hearing impaired
kids and on and on. But there were regular ed kids too. So, the regular ed kids had start
in the school before we did and the Friday before we were supposed to start in this new
school they had an assembly and they were [unintelligible] us to explain to the kids
that we were coming in and that how it wouldn’t be fair for them to belittle us and that they
should welcome us and treat us like any other child. So our paths were paved before we got
there. Now because of that and because I was mainstreamed on a partial basis in elementary
school, high school wasn’t so bad as far as the kids were concerned because most of
the kids that I was in school with in elementary school went to Washington Heights with me,
so my friends were there. And they took care, plus my sister was…my older sister was there
and she took care of me. So I had a pretty time. However, there was a teacher…my geometry
teacher…10th grade…never will forget. They wouldn’t let me take physical education.
I didn’t think anything about that. I thought it was great ‘cause nobody wanted to take
PE at that time. In order to get credits they let me work at the nurse’s station. So I
was sitting at the nurse’s station and my geometry teacher came in and she was talking
to the nurse. Well, I was in there playing my radio and having a good time and my geometry
teacher…the nurse starting talking about me and my geometry teacher say, “Yeah instead
of me bopping around in it she should be practicing writing.” Any other day I could of brushed
it off, but that day for some reason it got to me. No one had said anything about me writing…ever.
In fact it was an achievement that my…I could write with a regular pencil or pen,
but she chose to make fun of me. So I cried. And I said I wasn’t going to her class ever
again. And the nurse calmed me down said that I had to go to class now. It all worked out,
but that kind of discrimination I had.