Becoming a minority
Editorial by Danille Fortner [Hoover High School]
The looks of bewilderment stared upon me as I walked into the room.
I knew what they were thinking.
“What is she doing here?”
Ignoring the questioning faces, I proceeded to introduce myself and hoped that I wouldn’t continue to feel this alone even though I was in a room full of people.
Being alone in a room full of people
Being Caucasian, I have never felt like a minority, but when I came to the Minority Journalism Workshop, since women are a minority within the journalism field, I soon found myself the only white person attending.
I had really never considered my race or the race of others around me before because it was not a factor that I was judged by or judged others by. Yet, when I walked into the lobby of Rose Towers for the first day of MJW and saw my new classmates, I became extremely aware of the contrast between my pale skin to their dark skin.
Life lessons
The experience of becoming a minority has given me a valuable life lesson that I will not soon forget. Learning both negative and positive things about minorities has taught me that although they are different people with different perspectives, they are just like the other people that I hang out with at my school.
Those who I would have thought would judge me on the color of my skin turned out to be my best friends, sharing many similarities. Of course, there were people who I did not get along with, but that would have happened whether my classmates were white, black, yellow, or purple.
I learned that African-Americans stereotype too, against Caucasians and other African-Americans, but most of all I found that everyone adds something to the picture of life through their unique personality, regardless of their skin tone.
I thought that it was going to be a big deal being the only white person at the workshop, but others got to know others through my character and actions, not my race.
Not a melting pot, a mosaic
Comparing my MJW group as a melting pot would not do it justice. In a melting pot everyone becomes one thing without any variance, but everyone in MJW stands out and brings something new to the final picture by being him or herself.
I think Ed Mullins, chairman of the journalism department at the University of Alabama, described this group as well as other multicultural groups correctly:
“The quality of being different helps to increase variety in the mosaic idea. When you get the bright colors next to the subdue colors you create a more appealing work rather than having all the bright colors in a separate block. Humans are different and when those differences clash and blend it brings out the best possible result.”