American Experience
By: Arielle Germeus
Let me tell you about my experience
Being followed around a store because they assume I’m stealing
Getting refused service because they assume I won’t pay
Being asked to leave a café because I’m waiting for a friend
Having a woman call the police on my brother because something on his person accidentally
touched her
Wondering if my brother will make it back home if he were ever in a traffic stop
Wondering if I will make it back home if I were ever in a traffic stop
Watching a march occur of an organized parade of people believing I am less than human
Being told to change my hair because it looked unprofessional
Having people touch my hair without my permission because it “looks so soft”
Being denied a job because of my name
Afraid that my fellow students assume I am ghetto because of my hair
Getting several wary looks from my classmates because the discussion is about slavery and I’m
the only black student in the classroom
Let me tell you about my experience
Being afraid that if I ever spoke my mind I will go into the stereotype of the angry black woman
Having a person call the police on my family while we were having a BBQ
Having a person call the police on me because they assume I don’t live in my own home
Afraid that a person who commits a horrid crime shown on World News is a black person
because if one does, all do it.
Getting shot at because I took down a suspected shooter and they thought I was the shooter
Getting shot at because I was in my apartment and a woman thought I was robbing hers
Getting shot at because I told the cops I had a legal firearm in my possession
Having people assume I was a drug dealer because a cop shot me
Being lynched because I looked at someone “the wrong way”
Knowing my value was perceived as less than actual animals
Building up a country that will never see me as anything more than property
Having to march to Washington DC to ask a country to treat me like a human being
Having to protest these injustices day after day after day for a sliver of change to come
Persisting every day through these transgressions on just the foundation of hope
Knowing that, yes times have gotten better, but there will constantly be a systematic pain and
prejudice against people who look like me.
*This piece was written two years ago when the author was a sophomore in high school!