Fairy Tale Research Paper

I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

81% of Black adults reported that they have experienced at least one incident of day-to-day discrimination. And Adolescence is a stage in which to examine the impact of racial discrimination on the psychological part of African Americans (Racial Identity Matters). Which can cause a person to be scared expectably if someone has already confined in themselves of their race. "My siblings had already instilled the notion of black pride in me. I would have preferred that Mommy were black. Now, as a grown man, I feel privileged to have come from two worlds" (McBride 103). It was easier to accept the black

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

When I entered the Dynamic of Racism and Oppression class I was the individual who had blinders on. I did not have a full understanding of what racism was, which in itself is shocking to me as I thought I had. What made me really stop and think was this class opened my eyes to the fact that I did not know my own identity. I have heard individual say “I’m black”, “I am of African decent”, “I’m Latino”, “I’m Canadian”, and “I’m white”. These are common statements of how individuals view their race and identity. I have even placed my identity in one of those categories, I’m white. I was unaware and unsure of what it meant to have a culture, which many individuals claim everyday. Some individuals know their identity, others do not, I was one

I never knew that there was a big social differentiation between who hung out with who dependent upon race. To be very blunt, the ratio of black to white people in my school was about 4:1. I was a very quiet girl especially during my sixth grade year. In seventh grade I began to open up more, but this caused frequent altercations. As people began to know my name I recruited names such as “preppy” and “white girl”. I found the phrase “white girl” to be ironic considering the fact that I am fully Hispanic. When I corrected anyone who believed I was white, I would often get “I didn't know you were mexican, you look like you’re white!”. These accusations and the shocked looks on the faces of those who knew the truth never disappeared. Being a Senior in High-School and knowing most of my fellow classmates, I still frequently get the same comments or faces of those who have never thought twice about my race because I “look white”or I “act white”. Through the years of receiving comments like this, I've come to the realization that these judgements of people based upon their appearance happen all of the time. I will admit to doing this myself and giving the same comments as I have gotten. These racial judgements don't just come with African American or Caucasian

The first time I was aware of my race, I was six years old. I knew I was black, but it never was objectified by anyone. That is until my elementary school took our class to a water park. One of the boys in my class came up to me and told me he was surprised to see me go on the trip because his father told him that “black people can’t swim” and that I would sink to the bottom of the pool. The boy was not aware of his offensive comment; he was just curious why would I go to a water park if I can’t swim.

Have you ever been asked what’s your race or ethnicity? Well I have, and it’s a strange question to answer personally. When someone asks me that I have to wait and ponder as to why in the world would one would be asking such a strange question. I

As an African American, I have witnessed racial discrimination first hand from my own peers. For example, this year in one of my student organizations, we had an open discussion about how we all view different races. It surprised me that most of the people in the discussion, who had more negative things to say, were Caucasians and African Americans and that the negative things they were saying were in comparison to races that were not their own. As we continued to talk, I looked around the room and could see that many people felt almost ashamed to be their race because of the things that others were saying; however, no one spoke up to defend their individuality from the race. Only one of my fellow members spoke up stating that she "hated when her peers would say that she was nothing like a regular "white" girl" because she felt like the stigma of being white meant to be stuck up and rude, and she nor the white race were any of those things. As a society, it is important to know how these stigmas have come about so that they can be refuted, thus, making it easier for people to survive in our society.

As a teenage minority, it was a slight struggle in the beginning in trying to identify myself. Miller (2010) argues that this struggle started early as a child due to the fact that minority children are often told how they should identify themselves in a politically correct manner which alters the child’s “racial identity development” (39). For the longest time, I wasn’t quite sure how to identify myself in a racial manner; should I refer to myself as being Black, or should I say African American? Society created difficulties for me to be able to identify myself, especially since both labels can have different connotations. To be Black in a Black community meant that you had pride and confidence, whereas in society, it meant that you were

Throughout my whole eighteen years of life, I have always been in public school with people that were not like me. For as long as I can remember it seems like I had always been a minority because I was the “white student” in the class. As a young naive girl I would always ask mom why I didn’t have

Sagas about princes and princesses, beauty, magic, and love, fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella among others have become children’s favorite bedtime stories. However, as parents tuck their sons and daughters in, they fail to realize that there is a much more daunting purpose to these stories. American writer and poet, Jane Yolen suggests that fairy tales indicate life values. Furthermore, Yolen insists that these tales are “thumbprints of history” (Yolen 27). Studying fairy tales in depth, she proves that the “functions of myths” consist of “creating a landscape of allusion [and] enabling us to understand our own and out culture from inside out” (Yolen 18). Yolen confirms that these stories comment on, “the abstract truths of our

1. What is the genre of this story? Are there any other possible genres this story could fall into?

Fairy tales are something that everyone has read or seen, they all seem to have important lessons at the end of each one to teach young children some of the lessons they need for life. These fairy tales when we were younger all seemed innocent and something we all hoped that would happen to us. Little did we know as we got older that the fairy tales we all knew and loved when we were younger, weren't as innocent as they seemed.

“And they lived happily ever after….” she read from the hard cover book which lay open on the bed she had been sitting on for the past half hour.