Hall - Assignment 3

My family and I have been a part of Jack and Jill ever since I was born. My mother was one of the founding members of the Central Kentucky chapter, and so I have grown up having it as a constant in my life. Being one of the only black kids in a predominantly white program within a predominantly white institution (not just Clay, but also in Winburn, Ashland, and ACE) I have always had to fight the perception that I was "too white for black people, and too black for white people." Having JJOA as a constant helps to remind me that I'm not alone, and I can just focus on being myself and not have to try to be anyone for anybody.

As a member of JJOA on a national level, chapters from all over the midwestern region convene for conferences. I would see other kids who were intelligent, ambitious, and looked like me. When I was younger, I would go to regional Children's Clusters held each year in a different state. Now that I am older, I am part of the teen group. Each year we go to the Midwestern Region's Teen Leadership Conference. This June the conference is online, but last June we were in Chicago for TLC. It was three days of being surrounded with intelligent, ambitious, and tenacious black teens who also faced the same stereotypes and perceptions I did.

Meeting people from different places all at once helps to dispel misconceptions about your home and your upbringing. Some of the teens thought that Kentucky chapters would have thick country accents and all live on farms, and that's obviously not true. But I also thought stereotypical things of other regions and other chapters that weren't true, and that has taught me that stereotypes can be assigned and harmful to anyone and that most of them aren't true at all, and that I shouldn't let that sway my perceptions.

I got to see different points of view, political standings, religions, opinions, perspectives, all of which I may or may not agree with. We could all agree on our mutual disdain for another region that I won't name, but being able to have one thing in common and share that even while disagreeing has helped me to realize that unless someone's opinion is bigoted, racist, sexist, or uninformed, their opinion is valid and matters.

Knowing this helps me to get along better with people I may not necessarily agree with, and to find common ground before moving to an argumentative battleground.