Mixed Girl Problems: GRITS


GRITS, or an acronym for Girl Raised In The South, 


was our family's motto since we were living in South Carolina now! We were excited for the new school year to come at different schools. I would start high school a few months later after we moved and I had to face identity troubles and where I fit in at school all over again. 

Most students thought I was Puerto Rican because of my skin color, black students said I talked white, 


and white students did not care to be friends because I was not white. And everyone still segregated themselves at lunch so where do I sit in this school cafeteria, once again?

At least I had one girl, *Serena, who became my best friend and who just so happened to be mixed race too! We clicked right away because we were going through the same things like, we both had just moved from another state, agreed the school system was different, and faced a few bullies together. 

I remember one day in gym class, we were doing some exercises on the field outside. This one black girl in my class, *Shay, who had a group of friends always had some problems with me and today it seemed to be the day she wanted to fight me. Shay pushed me and then called me the N-word but she was a big girl with a posse. I was never the type who fought anyways...

To add, growing up in Minnesota, we never used the N-word so I had never called or heard friends and family saying this to each other. When my friend Serena saw me on the ground, she helped me get up. Then, we went to the teacher to explain what happened which didn't help much either. 

The teacher looked at my friend and I, puzzled...Her look was, "don't you all call each other the n-word anyways?..."


After that, Serena and I always tried to hang out together and got even closer. We shared similar experiences and tried to support each other until some boys in our school wanted to make it known of the differences between my friend and me. 

To explain, they continuously commented on how one was a darker shade of brown than the other, one had nicer hair texture than the other, and basically trying to pit us against each other by taking our attention to focus on our differences rather than our similarities. 

At first, I didn't pay the boys and their comments any attention but one guy who had a crush on me and I had a crush for him got into my head and convinced me to be frenemies with my best friend Serena. (smh😔)


I know I know, it sounds ridiculous! But that is what happened and I feel ashamed about it when looking back. However, these kinds of games aren't unknown or uncommon and after I realized that I had let this type of mentality distort my perspective through high school and college, I wanted to change.

Why let our skin color divide us?

If you liked my story, please share or connect with me on Instagram! Let's share our stories with each other to make a positive change -Megan #beunbounded
 





*Names and identities are kept private of any characters described in my stories.


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