From Majority To Minority And Back Again

Experiential Assignment #2 Name Institution Date Questions The group I am planning to have contact with is the basketball club in our school which is dominated by African American students from our campus. The fact that African Americans dominate this club is a turn off to most students on the campus, and none of them wants anything to do with the club. They have been stereotyped to be gangs, violent, poor, and drug addicts. Over the years, this club has brought a lot of trophies in the school and most players, are African Americans who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Jasper is one of the members of this club and is my classmate. At exactly 3 pm, I met the rest of the team on the basketball pitch, and they all were amazed to see me. The meeting started with a word of prayer, and everyone there seemed to treat the other with a lot of closeness and care. From the bench where I was seated, I felt togetherness in this team, probably because they were all African Americans. Togetherness was seen in the way the leader organized the young and the older teams. They had no time for intruders, and when I looked at the further end of the pitch hall, there was a written philosophy that said, “Create the enemy outside.” All the players are effectively collaborating with the leader and each other. At no point did I witness any form of violence or drug abuse as the rest of the students thought. In my view, the group loved, organized, and very religious. Prayers were said twice, Christians did their prayers first, and then the Islam one followed. I could tell there were patience and diversity was at its best because all players were of different ages. From the age of 12 to 18, yet they worked together to ensure their major goal of perfecting their skill in the game was achieved. I looked at every one of them as a superstar. That day, I shared their evening tea, their bus ride and keenly listened to their conversations. This was a group made up of African Americans, and I was the only Chinese in the room. Firstly, when I walked in alone, all eyes were cast on me, and the silence that followed was indescribable. The eyes followed me to the bench, and when I sat, the leader who was giving a speech had to stop for a while to ensure that people were attentive to what he was saying. The leader also looked at me with the eyes to suggest I was lost and this was not where I belong. The only smile I got was from Jasper who to some extent made me feel a bit welcomed. I knew that even though I was already among the minority races in the campus, I was choosing to become a minority event further if I joined this group that was dominated by blacks. ...