Delissa’s Autobiography

My name is Delissa Carter and I am an African American female. I grow up with my family which
was my dad, mom, older sister and older brother. I lived in carol stream, Illinois while growing up but I
would hang out in Wheaton, Illinois because that is where I also went to school. I went to Hawthorne
Elementary School, Franklin Middle School and Wheaton North High School. Growing up my family was
not that into religion, my parents did not take me to church every Sunday. They let me decide my
religious and if I wanted to attend church. I did attend a Christian church occasionally time to time
during my childhood, but I have not been to church in the past 15 years. Growing up my family’s
economic circumstances were that my mom and dad both worked. My dad would work overnight and
would get my siblings and I up every morning and helped us get dressed in the clothes my mother had
laid out. My mom worked during the day and was home to cook dinner and help us with dinner. On the
weekend we would have family game night or movie night. We are a very close-knit family and that
something that I value and cherish.

Wheaton is a prominently white town and there were not many African American students in
the Elementary school. In Elementary school I was the only African American girl in my grade. There was
not another African American girl so I had no one that looked like me that I felt like I could connect to.
Growing up without a representation of someone who looked like me took a toll on me emotionally and
socially. I felt like I had to act a certain way and talk a certain way for my classmates to feel comfortable
with me. Any time I was left out of things I just assumed that it was because I was African American that
was the reason why. I ended up taking the light skin and dark skin biases test to see if they would affect
how I would view my students. I was shocked by my results, because I thought my results would show
that I am more biases to light skinned people because that is majority of the people I grew up with and
they were my peers. Instead the results showed that I did not have a bias towards either group, that I
did not have a preference of light skin to dark skin.

In middle school I struggled with my weight a lot and it was hard on me socially and emotionally.
I did not want to hang out with friends as much or take pictures because I felt like I did not fit in with
them or I was too big for the picture. I tried joining sports and eating right but I still was not losing any of
the weight. I took the bias test about weight and it said that I preferred skinnier people to fat people. I
understood those results and it is an affect of how I grew up and not being so body positive that I still
attach or find skinner people more interesting. I will have to work on this and make sure it does not
affect my teaching because my students who are struggling with their weight or may be overweight, I
want them to feel comfortable with me. I do not want them to feel as through they can not talk to me
and I will write them off. I want to accept all my students no matter their background, weight, race and
economic class. That is not what they are in my classroom for they are there to learn and I am there to
lead them and encourage them to do their best every day.

Another thing I will have to be mindful as a teacher is making sure I do not show favoritism to
my African American students. On my biases test it should that I more friendly and nicer to African
American than people of European descents. I feel like as a teacher I would like to give my African
American students more attention because I never experienced in all my 27 years of life what it is like to
have a teacher that looks like me. I want to be a role model and an example for them that they are more
than what people think they are and just with hard work and determination they can do whatever they
want. I will make sure that I represent all my student in my class and celebrate all their differences and
similarities. I never want my students to feel as through I do not care about them, I want them to feel
that they could be themselves in my class and trust me as their teacher. I want to build bonds with them
and let them know that our class is a family and we will be there for each other. I want them to learn
more than just academics, I want them to learn life lesson, acceptance and self-love. I know that is a lot
and a dueling task to take on but as educators we must be more than just a teacher. Sometimes we have
to go beyond what we think to make sure we are there students are taken care of that may affect their
learning.