Karisha Jade

During my formative years in high school, I gained a crucial understanding of the importance of embracing one’s individuality. I found that my skin colour, culture and ethnic background separated me from my peers. I once found this to be an alienating figure in my life but when coming across people like me who joined my school, I learned to embrace it. During those painstaking years of insecurity and feeling ashamed, I did my very best in attempting to blend in with the crowd; taking up fashion statements, music and even bleaching my skin to fit in.

When new students joined, they were like me, brown, came from the same culture and background. I felt like I finally found my group of people that accepted me, they respected my lunch choices and understood my jokes. This was something I hadn’t experienced up until this point. I took this time to reflect and found that regardless of how people made me feel in school, regardless of the outwardly racist comments/actions on a daily basis, I didn’t need to succumb to separating from the very thing that made me unique. I delved deeper into my cultural heritage, the struggles of my ancestors, the beautiful art and the inventions that my people brought to the world. My uniqueness should be celebrated, looked up to and not ashamed of. I was different for every right reason, and I didn’t need to prove myself or change to fit into a community that relished on bullying.

I discovered that my skin color was not a cause for shame or hiding, but a beautiful aspect of my individuality. My golden skin tone that I desperately scrubbed until I bled. My golden skin tone that I bleached to turn whiter. My golden skin that I hid under multiple layers of clothing in the hot sun. I learned to love gold, for what it stood for and for how beautiful it was.

I also became increasingly cognizant of how society has historically oppressed and undervalued individuals with dark skin, which fueled my passion for advocating for greater acceptance and inclusion for people of all backgrounds. I will no longer sit silent and hold back on these “small comments”. High school has taught me that to be silent and change is giving in to what our ancestors worked so hard to fight for. Freedom to speak and freedom to embrace who we are without being silenced.

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