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Bradleigh Latimer

English IV Honors

Mrs. DeBock

27 April 2017

Real World Experience Narrative Writing

At the beginning of the year I was still uncertain as to what area I would focus on when

doing my Senior Digital Exploration. I did know, however, that I wanted to concentrate on

something that I related to passionately and also gave me an opportunity to involve everyday

people. After much thought I decided to interview minorities from various walks of life and

different age groups. Through this I could determine how peoples experiences differed when

comparing their involvements with discrimination and racial profiling. While everyones

experiences were different, everyone had faced some type of discrimination. I was unsure what

type people would grant the best interviews, but after consulting with my teacher, I decided on

two areas which I felt would work best. St. James High School and my family owned business,

Latimer Funeral Home, were the two places that I selected.

Prior to conducting my interview, I decided to come up with a set of questions that

weren't opinionated, yet would allow people to give their honest opinions without questions.

These questions were unbiased and did not side toward one way or another. The first interviews I

conducted were at St. James High School, which is a predominantly white school. Although I

knew that the minority student population was small, I believed that this small percentage would
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grant a very accurate reading. Most of the people interviewed were in interracial relationships so

I wanted to get insight on what it was like. While some said they didn't face any challenges at

school and felt accepted, in public they felt much backlash and ridicule. However to my surprise

some didn't face any type of discrimination at all in any type of environment. As I still continued

to conduct interviews throughout the next couple of days I began to get some real life stories that

affected how these individuals viewed race. One student, Tyshawn Small, stood out and stated

that his dad was beaten by the police although under the circumstances he was treated unfairly.

He stated that, after seeing my dad in that situation and him being treated as if he wasn't even a

human, I distrusted police, am afraid of the police and dont like the police. I continued to

interview staff members with the same question of, has race relations gotten worse or

improved? While the majority stated it had improved, Roz Harvey had a different response. He

stated, Racism hasn't improved at all if anything people just hid it, it's even more apparent now

that we have social media.

As my fourth and fifth day approached I decided to interview one individual and her

business, Latimer's Funeral Home. I decided this would be a very different interview since it

involved a much older person and she knew racism from a different era. When I asked her the

question she stated emphatically that racism was still alive and well. She told me stories of the

many forms of racism she faced as a minority and especially as a minority woman in business.

She stated that with the election of the latest president, people felt comfortable and secure in

their racism and in expressing their racism.

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After conducting all my interviews, I was shocked on how much new information I had

retained. While I predicted that everyone would have similar opinions to my knowledge,

everyone seemed to speak on the topic in very different ways. I learned exactly why African-

Americans were so distrusting of police in America and why they behave in the ways they do

around them. I also learned that even with all the odds that are against you challenges you may

face because of your race, sex, or orientation. Anything is possible and you can triumph against

anything.