Singled out

There are not many times in my life where I have felt like a minority. Being a white, middle-class American female, I have always been surrounded by people "like me," and most of the time, I'm in the majority. For 20 years I have felt this way. That is, until now.\nThis semester I am studying abroad in the great city of London. I arrived here the day after the terrorist attacks, and since then, it has been a wild ride. \nI came here expecting to be different. I knew I would stick out because of my American accent, the way I dressed and because I knew I would always be lost, holding out a giant-sized map in the middle of Oxford Circus. But little did I know just how different I am.\nMuch to my surprise, walking around the city of London is the equivalent of riding the subway in New York. The different races and array of ethnicities are complex, yet most of them are native Londoners. Last week as I rode the Tube, London's underground rail system, I looked around me to see just how many people were on my train. I noted mentally, for the first time in my life, that I -- a white American -- was the minority. And to be honest, I didn't like it one bit.\nAcross the aisle from me was a nice looking family. The parents were both reading a local paper as their two young daughters spoke in a language I could not understand. As I stared out the window, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked across the aisle to the two little girls, who then pointed at me, laughed, and whispered to each other. Not knowing what they were saying I smiled back and then caught the eye of their father, who grabbed his daughters and wife and headed down the aisle to the next car.\nA few days ago in one of my classes, the class was engaged in a heated debate about terrorism, American foreign policy and a possible war. As the debate came around my way I was asked by my professor, who knows I am a study abroad student, to give the American point of view on the national tragedy and any future actions. As all 25 heads spun around to listen to what I had to say I shared my opinion, which was immediately argued, put down and ignored. \nAnd then it occurred to me that this is how some Americans feel every single day of their lives. They are, day in and day out, a minority in a country that stands for freedom. And there I was, sitting in a train and talking in class, feeling like everyone was looking at me as if I had the American flag emblazoned on my forehead. I suddenly felt alone. \nAnd now I know exactly how it feels to be singled out, to be stereotyped and to be looked down upon, simply because of the color of my skin and the way that I speak. \nWhen I am back on campus in January, I am going to take into consideration what I have learned in my time spent on the London Underground. And for now, my fear is that I am just as guilty as the family I encountered on the train or my fellow students in class. I fear that somewhere in my past 20 years, I have made someone feel ignorant, stereotyped or alone, simply because of the color of their skin and the way they speak. And if I have then I apologize, for I have now walked in your shoes; I know how it feels.