When going through my classmate’s self stories, A common theme showed up in people’s experience in school. From the first time realizing race of others or how others are being treated because of their race. In Kiel and Jada’s self stories, the normative narrative was we all noticed someone’s skin colour at a young age at school. But not caring what the skin colour is, rather just wanting to be with friends with them for who they were, and not their skin colour. I was able to relate to both of these stories as I also experienced this action when I was younger. As I also did not care what colour of skin the person was, I just wanted to be their friend instead. 

i) Normative Narratives

Kiel’s self story “Blind to Differences” he writes a similar experience I had in my self story. Kiel first starts off with recalling his excitement for his first day of kindergarten. Walking into the classroom to where his cubby was and seeing the name “Shawn” as well. Kiel first thought seeing Shawn was “I noticed someone who looked different than me.” (Schmidt, 2021) but his first instinct was nothing malicious. Kiel continues as he smiled at Shawn and begins to talk with him. Even after Kiel first thoughts on Shawn he could tell that Shawn’s skin colour didn’t seem to bother him. Instead he looked at Shawn as a person and the similarities they have. Keil shows how meeting Shawn did not change how he acted because of the colour of skin.

Jada’s self story “Good Friends” also was an experience in kindergarten. Jada writes about her first day of kindergarten and how she noticed her skin colour was different from others in her class. She sits down and a boy who has darker skin then her, sits beside her. “I never see him as different, I just wanted to be his friend despite the colour of his skin.” (Hayden, 2021). Jada goes on to explain she did not care this boy was a different skin colour than her, she would still play with him at recess. She also states that “Every time I meet someone who has a different skin colour than me, I do not treat them differently because they are human beings despite what colour their skin is.” (Hayden, 202) I can relate to this story as in my self-story. I also did not care what the colour of their skin was i just wanted to be friends with them. At the end of the day, they are human despite what their skin colour is.

ii) Creating Counter-Stories: Disrupting normative narratives

Lovelee’s self-story differs from Kiel’s and Jada’s as they have a more positive look at race, as at the end of the day the colour of someone did not change their view on them. But Lovelee’s story shows how she had a negative experience. Lovelee’s self-story “The one who stood out” proves how the colour of her skin made her get treated differently. Her story starts off with asking to use the washroom and getting told she couldn’t. her friend then goes and ask to use the washroom and was allowed to. Right off the start, her story shows the normative narratives of someone of a different skin colour getting treated poorly. Her story goes on with her substitute teacher calling her “chocolate milk” because the substitute teacher did not know her name. Her story shows how people of colour getting called bad names just because of their skin colour.

Lovelee then continues to tell her substitute teacher, what her name was. But her substitute teacher took it upon herself to use this opportunity to give the class a lecture on how it is important to give teachers respect. And used Lovelee as an example as to why people like her cannot have nice things and are the types of people who deserve to be put aside. Having a teacher show this type of bad behavior is such a bad influence on the students. As it shows other students it’s okay to call people names because their skin is different or that they are not important. Lovelee explains that kids get called names, but she never expected to get called “chocolate milk” because of her skin color especially coming from a substitute teacher. Some of her classmates continue to call her that name, Lovelee sometimes wonders what her life would be like if she were white and imagine how well she would be treated. Her story shows how people of colour think about how their life might be different if they were white. So they wouldn’t have to experience people being racist towards them.

I truly cannot relate to Lovelee’s story, as I have not experienced something like this. However, being able to see and read about other people’s experiences with racism. Shows how racism can be taught by people who might have higher power than someone and use their voice for the wrong. Like kids continuing calling Lovelee “chocolate milk” even though it is wrong. But that does not mean everyone is like that, as Kiel’s and Jada’s stories show how that racism is taught because both of their stories showed themselves at a young age and not seeing someone being different because of their colour of skin. Being able to see there are many negative experiences, there are always some positive experiences with race. Kiel’s and Jada’s shows racism are based on power and adults who teach that upon others instead they both were in kindergarten accepted others.  Lovelee’s story shows how adults can teach others to be racist, even when they don’t think it was just an innocent name.