As an African-American female, I feel as if I am one of the most stereotyped people in the world. There are many issues associated with being African-American, i.e. where we live and our income sometimes defines us to a small, narrow-minded part of the world.

Everything seems to be a stereotype: our clothes, our music being filled with constant profanity, and even our food being overly-fried all the time.

I never thought that I would learn at a young age that racism is still out there.

When I was younger, I went on a vacation to Chicago with my mom, grandmother, and sister to visit family. We stayed at this hotel. My sister and I went to the pool with my cousin, and two boys started splashing water at us for no reason. Their two older sisters yelled at them to stop, but they continued anyway. To make matters worse, the boys’ mother encouraged them to keep splashing at us. Our cousin who was with us asked the mother to quit encouraging the boys.

The lady told my cousin, “Why don’t you leave, and stop using your welfare check to come here.” The situation was intense, and everyone was furious and devastated at the same time..

I am forever thankful that the incident in Chicago happened when it did, because I would not be who I am today without it.