In sixth grade, I went on a field trip to jail. Picture us: a bunch of Latino and African American kids sitting in a prison cell. I’ve never been able to shake the memory.
Here I was, an 11-year-old Latina from Jersey City, and our teachers were telling us, dead straight: This could be your future. I certainly got the message. What haunts me is how easily everyone could picture us behind bars. We could picture it, too.
When it came time for high school, my dad made the decision to move us to the wealthier, whiter community of Bayonne, New Jersey. It was safer, he thought, and gave me better odds in this world. In my new school, I worried about how I dressed, or that maybe I was too “ghetto” for the people who had more money. I didn’t talk to anyone. Then I took a class with Gene Woods, following the Facing History and Ourselves curriculum.
[For more on this story by EMILY CUBILETE, go to https://hechingerreport.org/48883/?]
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...0575@N07/27476595630
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