“In elementary school, there was this girl that I met in first grade. Her name was Emily and I wanted to be her friend because she was popular. I asked her, 'Do you want to be my friend?' and she says, 'No, because you’re black.' It was confusing to me because I did not understand the difference and my mom never really explained it to me because she went through something like that.
About a year later, I attended this poor elementary school where I was one of the smartest kids in the class; this made my other classmates resent me. They would make comments saying, 'Why do you sound like a white girl, Azauria?' 'I don’t know, that’s how I talk.' I started feeling some type of way not thinking I wasn’t black enough and everyone was antagonizing me because they felt that I thought I was better than them.
In middle school, my family moved to Virginia Beach and it was a whole different experience because I was being accepted by people for being smart. However, I sometimes felt weary because I felt that there will be that same resentment. Soon, people called me an 'Oreo' because I was 'white on the inside and black on the outside.' I would just laugh it off, but then I would go home and question it. People would ask me if I had any white relatives because I sound like a white person.
I went to a different high school than any of my other classmates, mainly because of the travel programs that they offered. I began to realize that those comments from my past didn’t matter. I got to prove a lot of people wrong about myself. I remember senior year, this freshman who rode the bus with me would be mocked about being an 'Oreo' and asked me, 'Hey Zeze, do I sound like a white person?' I would tell him no and make him understand that that’s just who he is and the way he sounds. I realized that just because you sound white doesn’t mean you’re white on the inside. But at the same time, people just associate sounding white as being educated is degrading.
I felt like a role model in that moment because I was more aware of who I was at that point compared to years previous when I was confused and felt that I needed to fit in. At Virginia Tech, it doesn’t feel the same because you [do not] see as many people that share that kind of ignorance about stuff and if you do meet those types of people, they are more open to changing that way so they don’t offend anyone. Also, in college, people are more mature and more aware. My experience at Tech is a lot more open than those previous years because more people see different points of view.”