Anisa

So I met Anisa at a bar and she was more than willing to tell me about her.

Who she is? She says “well I’m Anisa” and when I asked her story. Her story was that she moved to NYC about 3 weeks ago. Leaving her job as a teacher and choosing to pursue a career in acting in a city she always dreamed of.

& what she thinks about- her husband , her kids -her experience teaching history in West Virginia. With the goal as a teacher to always share the most honest information. Personally I always loved my honest history professors so it was refreshing talking to her about the world.

She opened up about her story of marrying a black man as a white women and her own mother not attending her wedding. & that opened up conversations of racism that we both witnessed growing up in rural towns.

Sharing her experience of raising two girls that are brown and her position as a white mother. For example they were checking out at a store. A cop started following her daughter after she did not do anything. The mom approached and as soon as they saw she was white they backed away.

We discussed the systematic racism that exist in America. & something that we will both admit our white privilege prevents us from ever fully understanding. Being aware of these issues and discussing them in conversation I believe is also important in our roles as white women.

Later discussing the problems with our prison systems and well my political views- that we need a two party system- following the government types of many European Nations and adopting a more diversified political system. A place where there is room for moderates because that’s where most of America sits. We just have the two extremes on both sides that create more challenges on the struggle to find some agreement on anything. Both ending that we are hopeful for the next generation of young adults and their passion to stand up for what is right.

Talking about how America was founded on colonialism and racism. Still being a fairly new country trying to find some type of agreement on various issues.

& her favorite part of American history was another question I asked. Realizing soon after how heavy that question was. But her answer being the 1920s with prohibition and women’s rights. And global history the Mesopotamia civilizations.

It was refreshing talking to someone that has more life experience than me. & I asked her if ever gets easier or starts making sense- her response was a simple no & that none of us know what we are doing. We are all trying to figure it out each day. Accepting that maybe that’s the whole point of life to just live it and not try and figure it out. & we are finding ourselves through our experiences with other people.