Prejudice part 1 - Hope
I stood a few feet across from Mark on the playground and tossed him the ball. It was recess, and we had only15 minutes to do our thing. He’s like most other 11-year-old kids: athletic, full of energy, hard to keep up with. But this kid is super smart, and sensitive too. I picked up on that a few minutes earlier when we were in the classroom working on his grammar and punctuation. He knew all these rules of grammar that I had completely forgotten about (sad that I call myself an English major).
But there he was, a young African-American kid who just had his birthday in August (he told me), poised to throw this ball at me. The sun shone on his skinny body and raised arms, and his smile with missing teeth. The BART roared by on an overpass near the school - the same line I took to get out here to Oakland for my first day of tutoring. I wondered if he had ever taken BART, or ever left his corner of the city. I could feel the scene burning into my mind as a permanent fixture in my memory. I knew I would remember that precise moment and what I felt. I felt hope for this kid. I felt like this was the place I needed to be.
Mark smoked me in basketball. I have to admit my skills are on the brink after a good 5 years or so of not being on the court. I was like 2 for 20, so Mark pretty much won by default. We had a great time. And when I complained about having no more skills on the court, Mark put me in my place: “you need to have confidence in yourself.” He’s such a smart kid. Though I didn’t plan it, I ended up spending my entire first day of tutoring with him.
I caught the BART with the other tutors from Oakland to Berkeley. There was a quiet buzz among everybody about how much they enjoyed working with the kids today. I didn’t say anything, but I smiled to myself, content that I had made a new friend. Not only that, but he was a sharp one - Mark’s a kid I look forward to working with some more in the coming weeks. Hopefully I’ll get to be the one to show him around Cal when he comes to visit on one of our planned field trips this year.
I usually close my eyes while I ride BART now. The scenery whipping by sometimes makes me sick, and on top of that, it’s hard to watch the landscape change from the ghettos of Oakland, and into the suburbs of Berkeley. I usually sit back and zone into the headphones of my iPod, but not today. Today I sat quietly in thought. I thought about little Mark, his school, his neighborhood. He’s a bright kid, and that gives me hope. Maybe he doesn’t really need me as much as I thought? Either way, I’m excited about being his tutor.
I arrived in Berkeley, and walked the streets to the campus eatery. That’s when things took a sudden turn.