Ignorance Isn't Bliss

I hate the saying ignorance is bliss, or what you don’t know can’t hurt you. Those sayings are far from the truth. Ignorance leads people to misunderstandings and someone always winds up hurt. For example, the middle school I went to was and still is full of ignorance. The majority of the students and staff are Caucasian. There were about 7 and a half black kids in my grade, 20 Asians, and the rest white. No Hispanics/Latinos. So about 28 white kids for every black kid. So obviously there was a lot of racial profiling.

Whenever someone did something bad, the teachers would immediately think it was the black students acting up. My brother deals with this all the time. He’s a tall, athletic, black-looking boy who appears older than he really is. Just recently, he went on a field trip to a Hispanic Supermarket and the teacher told them to buy something they haven’t tried before. So, my brother bought an energy drink with the funny name Neurogasm. Yes, this title sounds exactly like what you’re thinking, but he checked the ingredients before he bought it. It contained no alcohol, no carbonation, and no male enhancement products. So being the immature preteen boy he is, he bought it.

No harm right?

Wrong.

Immediately, the other white kids thought it was alcoholic and went up to the teacher to tell them my brother (one of the three black kids in the class) bought alcohol at the market. So the teacher reported this to the principal. Needless to say, my brother was called down and interrogated.

Now let’s think about this. How the hell would my brother even be able to buy alcohol since he’s not even 21, and secondly why is my brother the only one who is scrutinized for what he buys on a field trip? Because he’s black. Sorry to say, but its true.

Anyway, the principal checked the ingredients online, and everything checked out. No alcohol or drugs involved. So they just took the bottle from him and sent him back to class. Now, I wouldn’t be so upset if this was just one occurrence. But the damn white ass school is always trying to make my brother into the troublesome black student. His teachers and peers are always trying to make it seem like he’s the problem student, to fit him into the black racial stereotype even though he is just as white as he is black.

One time there was a rumor going around that he was having sex on the weekends with some random girl. According to gossip, he biked to her house naked on a motorcycle and when he got there, they had sex all day. Obviously this is fake, like most rumors are, and the school should have ignored them. But like always, they pulled him out of class and had him talk to the principal and counselors to stop him from having sex or make him use protection.

I’m sorry for the language but, what the fuck?! He was 11 years old! He told them it wasn’t true, but they still hadn’t fully believed him because, out of all their precious whites, it has to be the black boy who is having sex. It’s the blacks, which are highly sexualized and act on animal instincts. I went to that school and I know personally more white girls than blacks who were doing pretty sexual stuff.

Thus, to finish this rant, ignorance is not bliss. It leads to judgment of people based on their ethnicity, income, or background. And although people try to deny it, ignorance is everywhere, especially in societies with a majority of one race. 

By Cherish Hannah