A fight to be white

In my last blog I talked with a few people who also grew up close to the U.S.-Mexico border. I wanted to find out how others felt about their experience. One person mentioned that the Mexican culture is more aggressive. At first I wanted to disagree with this statement, but then I got to thinking. First of all, I don’t agree that as a whole the Mexican culture is more aggressive. I have traveled to Mexico many times and find that Mexican people are usually compassionate, warm-hearted people. But, at my high school, it was a different story.

Usually being Caucasian would make me the majority race, but in Bisbee this wasn’t the case. I was the minority and I was treated like one. In most parts of the U.S. racial discrimination is aimed at people of other races; Mexicans, African Americans, Middle Eastern people. It’s not so often that being white makes you the target. If a Caucasian person wants to experience racial discrimination all they have to do is attend Bisbee High School.

Every year the first weeks of high school are filled with student fights. My freshman year blood was splattered across my locker on the second day of school. By week two a student had to have his jaw wired back in place. There were fights in the cafeteria, there were fights in the hallways and in classrooms, there were fights in the parking lot – my educational experience was one mixed with fear. But I couldn’t let that fear show through. That would have made me an easy target. So instead I stood up for myself.

Everyday day after my third period class I would walk past a Mexican girl who decided I was going to be the target of her hatred. This girl had no reason to dislike me, but as she passed by me each day she glared at me. I suppose she was expecting me to look down at the floor and each time that I didn’t her anger grew. Pretty soon the insults starting coming, most of them were in Spanish – things like “stupid, white bitch” were the most common. For the most part I just didn’t react, but I never look down. She didn’t like that so one day she punched me in the face. One thing that I will say about the Mexican culture is that they wear a lot of jewelry – nice, big, gold rings. That felt great across the bridge of my nose.

Like I said earlier, if you don’t stick up for yourself, you just become an easy target, so I fought back. There was a teacher standing near by, and a few of my friends as well, so the fight was quickly broken up.

The transition into high school is an awkward, difficult period for most youth. But as a white teenager, attending Bisbee High School, you face quite another monster. I can’t count the number of times I was called a white bitch or the number of racial fights that took place at my high school, but I can tell you that it was A LOT. Surviving Bisbee High School as a skinny, white girl meant you had to be careful, you had to have friends that would stand up for you, and you had to hide that fact that they scared the crap out of you.