Throughout every school I've been to, I've been one of just a few people of color. That means in most of my classes, I was the only person of color among my 20 classmates. Most of the time, this was never an issue for me. I got along with my peers and some of them became my best friends.
The times that I felt out of place or singled out was usually during some sort of history course, or when we reading certain books in literature courses. When race would get brought up in class, all eyes would shift to me. It happened almost every time to where I just expected it, got so used to everyone looking at me just because Black people were the topic at hand and they wanted to see how the one Black person in class would react.
What would be worse is when we would actually get into discussions about them. Everyone would look at me as if I was the one that had to say something. The class would just sit there quietly, waiting for me to say my thoughts. Even teachers would look in my direction, some even having the audacity to call me out by name to see if I had anything I wanted to add.
I would just feel like a sitting duck. I had to be the one to talk every time because obviously I'm the only one that could have anything to input in the conversation or topic at hand. People would be too scared to say the wrong thing and "offend" me, or just wanted me to say something so they could agree with me whether that's what they were thinking or not.
This is not the way to go about these conversations. The solo Black person shouldn't have to be the first or only one to talk just because race is being talked about. Yes, it can be uncomfortable, but it should start in the classroom. If students won't even talk about race during a history lesson or while discussing a book, how are they expected to have the uncomfortable conversation down the line?
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