I attended Area E Academy of Fine &
Performing Arts for middle school. There I participated in dance, drama, and band.
I also played the violin. Those years were honestly some of the greatest years of
my life. When I reflect on my time at Area E I can’t help but laugh. I really
thought I was grown! The school was an elementary and middle school (K-8), and
the elementary kids called me “momma.” I laugh when I think about my
“boyfriends”. How did I think I really had a boyfriend in middle school? We
couldn’t talk on the phone or go out, so how did we date? We ate together in
the lunch room and wrote each other love letters.
His name was Shawn Cole. He was the whitest
White boy I’d ever met, but I called him a reverse Oreo (Black on the inside,
White on the outside) because he talked, walked, and behaved “like a Black
person”. He even lived in “the hood” just like me. Yeah, Shawn was Black.
I liked Shawn because he had nice teeth.
He had this cute little haircut, too; the sides and back of his head were
shaved bald, but the top was long. Sometimes he’d wear the top part in a
ponytail. I loved when he did that!
Shawn was my “boo”. I liked him so much. I
used to make two lunches so I could bring one to him. We would ride our bikes
all over the neighborhood together. The only thing that bothered me about Shawn
was that he was…SHORT! I was one of the tallest girls in school (they
called me “Big Bird”). The top of Shawn’s head came to the bottom of my chin. I
always had to bend down in our pictures!
Yes, Shawn was short, but that was the
only thing that bothered me about him. My friends were bothered by something
else, however: he was…WHITE! “Kari, you are Black and he is White, you
cannot be boyfriend and girlfriend.” One of my friends patiently explained that
to me one day after school. Why? She never gave me a reason. I still don’t
know.
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