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Delaware, United States
Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"

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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Express Yourself: Social Challenges


Thank you to Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie @ Bouquet of Books for this weekly meme!

This might be both an easy and a hard question because it's not something I get to talk about often, the question of my biggest social challenge.

I think I said this a while back, but I began my growing up in a predominantly white town called Yardley, PA. It's about an hour north of Philly, just west of Trenton, NJ. I spent a lot of time being if not the only, one of the only black students in my classes. For a while, I did wish I looked like my friends, but overall, I was accepted, and I was fine. Moving down to Delaware, however, was a culture shock. Dover was actually a segregated city when my mom was growing up, and the further south you go, the clearer it is that some mentalities haven't changed. So it's hard going through days where people always categorize or judge people based on what color they are, and you see it on the news so often it's sad to see the tug-of-war between how far we have or haven't come.

Didn't mean to bring down the mood, but hopefully the world changes. :)

6 comments:

Heather R. Holden said...

People judging others purely because of their skin color and other superficial factors is definitely sad. I really hope the world manages to move past that mentality someday!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I've never understood that. I've lived all across the US and in several foreign countries, and people are people. I'm blessed I go to a church that is mixed, and from what I understand, we are one of the few. That is sad.

Anonymous said...

Me too!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, my church is predominantly black, and even though I'm needed there, sometimes I would like to be in a more integrated setting because that's where I'm most comfortable.

Jackie said...


I'm trying to go through the EYM list, like you'd mentioned. Some people have been on vacation and others have dealt with sickness and death in families, so Dani and I feel saddened for them and understand completely.
There are others that may have forgotten so I will be sending them an email soon, to see if they would still like to participate. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Hopefully, in August, the list will be better.

Anonymous said...

Aw, now I feel a little jerky. lol

You're welcome!