City Case

The city of Cerritos is what I still call home even after 17 years. Being such a diverse city, it shaped my personality, changed my outlook on stereotypes, and helped encourage me to want to be somebody and see the world.

Growing up around a strong black southern family and living in Cerritos where there were predominantly Asians, at the age of 5, it was quite annoying back in the day. To some of my cousins, I was either considered a "valley girl" "white washed" an "Oreo" or "too proper" because I didn't speak the same slangs that they did, I didn't sound like them, dressed like them, or had the same interest that they held. Even around some of the Asian kids I grew up with, it almost seemed like I was a foreign person just moving into the states, or as if I was an alien. Because I had a dark skin complexion, extremely skinny and was the only child at the time, that's when the strange questions started. I use to be asked, "Why are you knee caps so black? Looks like you've been sitting in mud", "what are those spots on your legs? Reminds me of a cheetah" or the one that got to me most was "are you adopted since your mom is single?" I always felt misunderstood since I was a kid living in Cerritos. With all the teasing that was going on around me, it became my socialization experience, shaping how I acted towards people and even my own family. I didn't grow up to be no bully, didn't tease others because I was teased, or ever held a grudge towards my family members or friends nor felt resentment to hang out with them, because I did the total opposite. Attending school in Cerritos from elementary through high school, the African-American kids that I did come in contact, with reminded me of my cousins with the same rude nicknames and the teasing, but I went right along with their laughter towards me. Yes, sometimes I would go home, complain and cry to my mother asking her "why me?" but I had to realize early on that sometimes those comments come out of jealously, it helped me stay strong, prideful, and goofy, to also seeing that just because I was black, didn't mean that I had to be the stereotype of what others thought on how black people should act and speak. It just made me that much more friendly towards others for how I treat them, because I would expect the same treatment.

I loved witnessing the difference between my families and the friends that I had in Cerritos, day in and day out. I didn't want the stereotype to prolong in my life with being black and other black people thinking I should act and sound this and that way, because to me that is a very ignorant outlook on how any ethnicity should be. You would assume that because one male is black he should be into or better in sports like basketball or football, and listen to nothing but hip-hop or rap, while the next Asian male that you meet should be great at math, a top student, and instead of sports, they're in a band or play an instrument. But I seen the same interest that some would assume one ethnicity may be way more into than the next or that