Monday, February 07, 2011

30 Days of Truth: Day 8

Day 08 → Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit.

My third grade teacher at Herman Hirsch elementary school, Mrs. Cooper.  I am horrible with names, but I remember that woman's name.  She did her damnedest to make my life a living hell.  I was the only non-black person in her class.  She used to just randomly hold forth on the evils of white people.  This is how I know it was a race issue.  And it wasn't just the talking.  She was mean to me.  She let one of my classmates search through my desk one day I was absent and steal some money I had in there (only 85¢, granted, and yes I should've known better--but I was eight, for chrissakes).  For some reason, the smell of camphor makes me ill.  One day a girl came to class with Vick's Vapo-Rub all over her legs.  I said it was getting to me, and was mocked, and eventually had to run from the classroom to throw up.  When I got back, I got in trouble for leaving the classroom without permission.

There have been others who treated me worse, but outside of family members, they were all peers.

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