I don’t go to Oxford. I went to Hawaii Pacific University. But the “micro-aggressions” are rampant out here especially since I’m a black female from the mainland south.
I took a very bad spill going downhill (Hawaii has very steep hills) on my way to class one day in the fall semester last year and it was so bad my knee bled right through my MissMe jeans. I didn’t want to be late so I skipped getting provisions to patch myself up. Upon my arrival to class I asked my professor (a white lady) if she might have any bandages…I did so without showing her my knee, and at this point the blood was at my ankle and it stained my socks. I began to show her my knee so that she could see how seriousness of my wound because she first gave me a look like…how dare you ask me for a small favor or some shit like that…I explained what happened and asked again if she had an bandages I could use. I knew she had two small children at home so I figured as a mother she would always be prepared for anything, ya know.
She look up from her podium which is standard for all professors here, and huffed and said, “I’m not a pharmacy.”
The air got taken out of my chest, and I couldn’t think, I stared for a minute trying to figure out why I was so shocked by what she said….so I returned to my chair and thought to myself, did she think I just asked her to fill a prescription?
I have no idea.
Needless to say a very kind surfer named Malte from Germany gave me a wrap and bandages because he had to buy a first aid kit after he got some scrapes on his arms from surfing the previous week and bailed on a bunch of sharp rocks beneath the sand.
Before that day Malte and I had never met or talked to each other, and we became friends. He taught me how to surf.
So it wasn’t all bad but damn, my professor could have just said, “no I don’t have bandages, sorry.”
She didn’t have to say it the way she did.
I felt like she saw me as a drug addict because I am a black female skateboarder, and I’m very good too, I just hit the ground that day for some reason and got a really bad wound which is rare for me since I’ve been skating since I was 4yrs old.
I don’t go to Oxford, but I felt like I needed to share my story. Believe me when I say there are not a lot of black people male or female who go to college in Hawaii. Not unless your in the military. It’s mostly Asians and whites. I just wanted to share my black experience with people who would understand and not think I was pulling some sort of race card.
Thanks for reading.
If you could donate anything at all we’d really appreciate it
Update
Hey guys - this project has been silent recently, but we’re hoping to bring more stories soon. Until then, if people have any messages of their own to share, please submit them and we’ll make a page for you guys.
Members of the team have been busy recently with finals and things, but we’ve recently put together Oxford University’s only ‘zine’ with articles related to race.
We need some funding to get this truly off the ground - if people can spare anything at all, we’d really appreciate a little bit of money to print our first issue.
The link is here:
http://www.gofundme.com/a3wwwk
Thanks.
