That One Time I Was Accidentally Racist in the Third Grade

Courtesy of me! Enjoy the free art!

Yes, I am subconsciously racist. It’s not something that I’m proud of, and it’s something I am desperately hard to change. But it is what it is. Normally, I would write some philosophical essay on why exactly I’m subconsciously racist, but I’ve already written why in my last post if you want to check that out. Instead, I’ll give you a personal example on my subconscious and accidental racism from way back in the third grade.

So, way back in the third grade, my class was in the school gym having our P.E. class; we were jumping rope, tin-can walking, and other juvenile activities for children- I’m not exactly sure what because this was all more than a decade ago. Anyways, I was playing with a jump rope all by myself (thanks, autism), pretending I was walking a dog or some other animal when a black girl in my class (I’ll call her Mona for privacy reasons.) walked up to me and asked-

Now, being the autistic, goody two-shoes nerd that I was (and in a way, still am), I thought Mona was just being stupid. So I stared straight into her eyes and corrected her in the most arrogant voice-

Now, in my defense, I didn’t know what African-American Vernacular English (aka AAVE) was. I didn’t even know it was even a thing, let alone a whole dialect of American English. Now that I do know, however… yikes! I cannot believe third-grade me was kind of a racist back then! Back then, I only thought racism was enslaving and discriminating against people for their skin color. I’ve never heard about microaggressions and how those affected people of color (and still affects them to this day). Now that I know better, I find it rather odd (and ironic in a way) how white people usually romanticize black culture yet are still put off by black people. Strange, isn’t it?

So Mona, if you’re somehow reading this somewhere, I am seriously sorry for what I’ve said to you in the third grade. I wasn’t trying to be racist back then, but I was, and now I know better than to correct someone’s grammar in a rude and condescending tone.