white boys (river phoenix)

PREFACE

Preface

*this book is not in first person, just the preface!*

     My mother told me that as long as I stayed away from devious white boys in our new neighborhood, I'd last at the high school I was going to be transferring into. I was transferring as a Senior to Fenway High located in a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. We were moving from the south- Georgia, namely - to Fenway which was located somewhere in Boston.

     The racism that my mother, father and I had to experience was unspeakable, but thankfully not violent- for the most part. We lived in a more exquisite, rich part of Georgia and we were the only black folk in our neighborhood, or more like the only people of color in our entire neighborhood period. We weren't like a lot of the people of color that lived in the general areas of Georgia.

    Regardless, I was still bullied at school for my dark skin, especially by the posh little white boys whom my other friends living the not-so-glam life would call crackers. I really did try to be nice to the white people, I did. Never lost my cool or anything, and I always used "Hello, Miss" and "How are you miss?" when I would greet my snooty pale teachers at the door. Anyway, that wasn't the only reason we were moving. Mom really decided last year when she was denied a job for her "foreign" middle name, Abdella. She said she'd had enough reports coming from teachers that I'd been crying during the last period of school because some white boy had cut off one of my braids or called me names. She was also tired of the ignorance we all had to experience as a family down South.

     Yet of course, I had the mindset that not all white people were that bad. So, naturally, I dated a white boy. And naturally, that resulted in disaster, one so damaging and earth-shattering that my parents found out. Even if I had tried to keep it a secret, it had put walls around me that were so tough and strong that anyone could see there was a problem. A change. A big change, like the one my parents made for me after they found out what happened.

    Sure, maybe the urban Boston wouldn't be completely socially aware, but they'd at least have some idea of how to treat us black people. So, we were packing up our bags, and I was going to a new school, and I'd do fine as long as I stayed away from those white boys.