Being a minority in a WHOLE NEW WORLD

Being a minority in a WHOLE NEW WORLD
How I wish I could change the color of my skin.
Stares, dirty looks, negative remarks, and stereotyping, as I walk down the street EVERYWHERE in Accra I know people are thinking these things, but there is BARELY ANYTHING I CAN DO TO CHANGE THEIR MIND.

I have heard the word “obruni” so many times (it means white person), it has made me sick. I know many people just see this as a way of saying…hey there is someone that is different…but why can’t the immediately ask for my name and not look at the color of my skin.

I know what I am experiencing isn’t dreadful, but it does wear-down on me after a while. I can’t help but feel the stares on campus. And SO MANY Ghanaians wonder why international students stick together? It is because you automatically assume you know who I am before you EVEN ASK FOR MY NAME.

I can now start to comprehend how other minorities feel in the United States. How can a Hispanic individual endure someone accusing them of being an illegal immigrant when they have been in the United States their whole life. Or how can someone swallow the fact that their friend’s parents won’t let their child go home with them because there are black?

All of these questions make me think. I would like o change the color of my skin…and possibly my gender, but I won’t get into the sex treatment here yet. I think the African Americans in my group are defiantly treated differently, then the Caucasian ones. I would like to go through Madina market, this is where I heard the most people call me Obruni, and really see the difference.

People need to classify each other. I understand the need for that, but I would like to break the miss conception of who I am just by the media they have been exposed to. Goodness gracious…if you think of the TV and other media that Ghanaians are exposed to about Americans…WE WOULD ALL BE ASHAMED. For example, someone asked me if I wanted to be like Brittany Speare…and I was thinking…REALLY?

If that’s who they use as their knowledge of the United States, then that is just sad. AT LEAST COMPARE ME TO OBAMA.

I am curious how well I will adjust to this difference. It has been one month and I would like to see after three more if I build a resistant or a way of coping with this ever enlarging wound.