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FIRST BASE - THAT TREE

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Hi, my name is Kunta Kinte. You probably hear that and start laughing well, that's who I am. It's funny when people see or hear this name, they look at it as a practical joke. IT REALLY ISN'T! Years ago when I came to this country I was called that name several times and I didn't know what the heck it meant. An associate of mine told me they were referring to me. I was disgusted by it, I had no clue why they were calling me a name that wasn't mine. I would throw a fit and just ignore them. Where I came from, there wasn't a T.V, actually there was, but we didn't have electricity. I only saw a movie when we went to the movie theater, or during Christmas when we visited my Aunties' house on the other side of town. I wasn't aware of the movie ROOTS until I came to America. As a youngin' I couldnt comprehend what I was watching, but I knew it was a show and as I grew older, of course I started catching on to what was going on and the point they were trying to make. Before I run away from the topic, I called my self Kunta Kinte, because I am African, I was never a slave, but I am from Africa. Some may say the character was fictional, might say it was based on an actual individual. Whatever the case may be, I know that Kunta stood his ground and wasn't taking any crap from any one. He stood for what he believed in, most importantly he stood up for himself. Well this relates to me in a sense because, I went through the same crap when I first came to the U.S. I was called all sorts of name that really made me felt uncomfortable bout myself.

The only people I knew were the folks I lived with and that was it because I didn't have any friends. I went to school everyday being the pratactical joke of everyone. Kids would bring magazines and show me pictures of kids featured on the National Geographic Channel and make fun of Africans and the food we ate. All of this had a toll on my learning process, and as smart as I was, I wasn't able to stay focused in school at all during this mayhem. To make a long story short, months later, I started to conform to the African American way of doing things. I just
wanted to be cool, or at least be accepted. Things started going a bit smooth. I made few friends, I started playing American football, even though I really sucked at it, I did all I could just so I wouldn't look any different from the other kids. As much as I loved soccer, I stopped playing it, because it wasnt so normal to the other kids, well the ones I went to school with. Only the Asians and Hispanic played soccer. Later, I started talking like the African Americans, started sagging my pants because that's what I saw my friends do. I learned the word nigga and used it like nothing. I didnt really understand what it was and didn't care at all. I was a kid, only a kid tryna to fit in. My house phone started ringing off the hook, teachers asking to speak to my father. I was getting into fights in school, making threats to kids, telling them Im gonna whoop their ass when I catch them outside at recess. The authorities at school started to wonder, what has gotten into the sweet kid they loved so much, the one that was always polite, never had time to tell him twice to do the right thing. Letters were later being sent to my house asking my father to come in for meetings. He was never able to go. He would read the letters,get mad at me and beat the shit outta me and not show up. He would call the school and schedule another meeting which he would hesitate to attend.

Years later, at the age of fifteen or sixteen , I SNAPPED OUT OF IT!! I thought to myself, what am I doing?, I was destroying myself! Bringing the value down of the kind of person I truly was. Still rough around the edges, I started to embrace my culture and what we represented. I've always been gifted with art, so I used that to help me build upon what I wanted to achieve. I printed shirts that stated I am African, I painted my sneakers red yellow and green. I then started to associate myself with other Africans who really embraced their culture. Later people around me started to see the difference in me, they started to see the new me. Some found it wierd that I was being the way I was. I was happy that I did not have to front anymore, pretending Im something Im really not, that wasnt me and never will be. I AM KUNTA KINTE! IM NOT WILLING TO CONFORM INTO THIS SOCIETY OF WHAT'S COOL AND WHAT'S NOT. I KNOW WHO I AM AND IM STICKING TO IT. IM PROUD OF MYSELF THAT I DECIDED THIS AT A VERY YOUNG AGE INSTEAD OF BEING AN ATOMIC FLUID TO THIS SOCIETY. IM HERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, IMPACT LIVES IN WAYS I KNOW HOW TO. THE MAN IN THE MIRROR IS AS EXTRAORDINARY AS I WANT HIM TO BE.

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