Diary 29

Dear Diary,

Recently in Ms. G’s class we’ve been studying the legend of Camelot

and King Arthur. At first, many of us in the class were not too interested in

the legends that occurred in medieval times. I think Ms. G saw our initial

lack of interest, so she decided to add a little incentive in order to get the

class to participate a little more. She announced that once our lesson was

finished and the class took “the test,” all the students who passed the exam

would be eligible to attend a field trip to the Medieval Times restaurant. We

had an opportunity to relive the medieval era and enjoy a nice dinner while

being entertained by knights participating in hand-to-hand combat. There is

no better way to teach than to provide some firsthand experience and a little

fun.

Needless to say, the announcement of a field trip to Medieval Times

perked up everyone’s interest. Soon, everyone in class was determined to

know everything about King Arthur and his adventures. The more I

participated in class, the more I realized that I was no longer interested in

the lesson plan because of the possible reward, but because I genuinely

found the lesson captivating. Of course, the idea that we as a class would

have the opportunity to go out to dinner together and enjoy ourselves was

not bad.

As time went on and I became very familiar with the lesson material, I

felt a great sense of accomplishment. Go figure. I could now understand and

was able to participate in discussions that were related to great literature. I

understood because I had to actually read it, not because I had seen one or

two movies.

Test day came. I could feel knots in my stomach on my way to class. I

passed the test with flying colors and so did everyone else. This only made

the prize even sweeter, because I had worked very hard and enjoyed myself

doing it. However, something ended up raining on my parade. The day

before our long awaited field trip, another teacher told me and a friend in

my class that we were not going to be able to go unless we dressed in slacks

and a tie and not like gangsters. Gangsters? Since when do gangsters wear

GUESS? shirts with Levi pants at the waist? I always thought gangsters

liked to dress in pants three times their actual waist size with white T-shirts.

Maybe he felt this way because of my race. I didn’t know, and I was

confused.

Funny that he was creating rules of his own. After all, he was only

tagging along as a chaperone. He shouldn’t have been pushing his weight

around. “No problem,” we thought. Even though neither one of us owned a

tie, we were going to dress our best without one. The next day, as my friend

and I stood in line to board the bus, we were asked to step out of the line

and let others aboard. We were actually being denied the right to participate

in the field trip because we were not wearing ties by that same teacher that

had talked to us a day earlier. I was in complete shock. I had worked so

hard to get to the awaited moment only to be told that I could not participate

because of my appearance.

Confused and disappointed, my friend and I went home. The next day

was very hard, as everyone asked why I didn’t attend the field trip.

Actually, what really bothered me was how everyone was bragging about

how fun it was. A little while after the incident, I met with Ms. Gruwell and

the other teacher who prevented me from participating in the event. Ms. G

put up a hell of a fight! Apparently she felt that I had the right to go, too,

just like everyone else, and that I was wrongfully discriminated against

because of the way I was dressed. Even though the teacher eventually

apologized to me for his blatant discrimination, I forgave him but didn’t

forget. To think that I was denied something because of the fact that I was

not wearing a tie but was still following the dress code disgusts me. From

now on, I will walk with my head in the clouds and dream of when people

will stop judging books by their cover.

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