The Blog of tonyes

In a comment on @galenkp's post titled "Weekend-Engagement Topics: WEEK 266," I told him I would choose this topic to explain my experience and prevent it from affecting others. It's true that I've never shared this story, but, as I said in a previous post, at this point in my life, I'm ready to let go and live the best life I can. I think that by sharing things like this, I help others not be mistreated or feel ashamed of their condition.

Excuse the nonsense, here's my post.

It wasn't the first time this happened to me, but no one had ever gone this far.

The thing is, in 1997, I moved to a new province and, as you might expect, I had to look for work. I did it in the field I had graduated from and had been working in for several years: as a teacher.

When I arrived at the school in question, I felt as if several eyes were piercing my soul, and that feeling wasn't for nothing. Later, I learned what it was all about.

It so happened that, for the teaching position, three teachers had applied for one position, and I was number four. Therefore, they had to decide who would get the position through a competitive examination, which consisted of teaching a class before a panel, and whoever had the best results would get the position.

The head of the subject didn't agree with me applying for the competition. The reason she publicly gave was that I was too young to prove I had sufficient knowledge to apply for the position, and the hidden reason, the one she had spoken about when they stared into my soul, was that, as a young, Black, and poor person, I didn't have the skills or knowledge to be able to perform such a job. According to her, the fact that I didn't have a suit to wear to the exam diminished my chances.

I have never been ashamed of my black skin or of my condition as a person without financial means. On the contrary, what I have achieved has been achieved under these conditions and with great effort and sacrifice.

Let's go back to that moment.

How did I deal with that situation?

In the exercise I completed, I achieved the best results, the highest score, and a place.

In my words of gratitude, I made it clear that my mother had always taught us to fight with knowledge, that the fundamental weapons of human beings are their knowledge, their values, and their feelings. I also said other things like that a person's color is in their soul, not their skin, and that the greatest wealth is being a good person.

If that person thought I would fall apart, they were wrong because what you are is nothing to be ashamed of—quite the opposite.

Two years later, I became the school's principal, and many thought I would retaliate against that person. They were wrong. I even asked her to continue teaching the class, something she accepted, although she decided to leave the school the following year.

Important: I used DeepL Translate. The photos are mine, taken with my Samsung J2 phone.