In this essay, I present my firsthand account of my experience as an African American Health student in a predominantly diverse health program as well as my perceptions and interactions with fellow students. As an autoethnographer, I sought to answer the following question: What is the experience of an African American health student’s education in a predominantly diverse school of health and university, and how does that experience affect me as an individual?
In high school, I was called “white” by the majority of the African American students in a high school of nearly 2000 students in the Southeast of Houston because of the way I talk. Initially, when they said this to me I was shocked they’ve never heard an African American speak educated. I had been on the receiving end of racially charged comments by white peers at my job, and now I had to deal with this from my own race and ethnicity, too? I wondered why I could not catch a break. I remained confused but focused
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One of the themes of her phenomenological study was that of fitting in and “talking white.” She reports about a study participant who had grown up in a predominantly white secondary school and had become accustomed to experiences with white students. African American nursing students who did not have such an experience described some African American students as being “Oreos…Black on the outside and white on the inside.” Such “Oreos” are described as African American students who are black but “act White, socialize, and talk like White people.” One of the participants of the study shared the following observation: “To me it’s kind of a funny thing that it’s such a problem in the Black community that you could not talk in a certain way…but if you start talking slang, then to them you’re