English as

signment#2 . Relate an incident in which you were made to feel or contributed to making someone else feel like an outsider.

Running From Prejudice

I look around and I see it, and then I read about it. But I never thought I would be faced with discrimination firsthand.

It was my junior year in high school, with lots of opportunities, freedom and responsibility. I decided to join the all male basketball team as there were not enough girls in my school interested in basketball to form a female team. Somehow I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I loved ball and as I knew most of the team from classes and running track, I figured why not.

The first day of practice I disregarded the stares. As the season went on, though, I started to feel out of place, like an outsider. I was the only girl and there was no one I could relate to or who could relate to me. I stayed to myself and kept thinking, life is not always great, but I just have to get through this. There were certain boys I was able to get along with, but even they would occasionally make gender comments such as basketball is a boy’s game, girls are too sissy to play and other unflattering comments. By then I was fully aware of how much respect they lacked.

One day after a practice as we were preparing to leave, they started discussing how teens sometimes do crazy things. Then all a sudden the issue of gender differences surfaced and someone said, “Males are superior to females, girls have issues.” The saddest part of this was realizing they knew I was there and didn’t care. My world crumbled as they made comment after comment and laughed. Reality smacked me in the face. I’d had my first encounter with discrimination. The tears poured from my eyes as I headed for the bus. The only thought I had was how I had been deceived into believing these boys were my friends and I could trust them. Even though some apologized, I don’t have the same respect for them as I had before. My insight on boys...