MY RACE CARD

I like to think Everyone in North america is born with a race card. As we progress and evolve from an infants, into teenagers, and later to adult hood we will continuously be identified based on our race, religious and cultural beliefs. i was born in Nigeria but moved to Canada at a very young age so i hardly remember anything involving my time in Nigeria. my family lived in government housing for majority of my childhood. Race wasn't an issue for me, i lived in a very diverse neighbor, where i had friends from different cultural and racial backgrounds, we didn't look at our selves had different or judged each other based on our appearances or cultural beliefs because all we cared about was having fun. we were unawares of a world that places importance on such things. Don't get me wrong we all identified ourselves based on our race but that was it we were unawares of the capitalistic environment in which were would embark in soon that takes advantage of minorities and delegates social stratification. growing up I didn't have a race card because almost everyone I knew was black or a minority of the same social status. The older i got and the more of the world i got to explore it was quite evident race was an important factor to how i would be persevered. i remember my parents always telling me i had to be smart and careful at all times, they told me i would have to work twice has hard at anything due to 2 factors, one being race and the other economic status. Despite my parents warning I have never seen my color, my hair or my race as a disadvantage because i choose to not see it that way. I am not naive in any sense i recognize social importance placed on race but i refuse to let that define me to an extent. i say to an extent because in someways it has already defined me even if i don't want it to.