Not too many of "You."

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I'm an African American female who will be starting the BSN program in about a week in a half. I'm happy and grateful and pretty much everyone has congratulated me and had nothing but great things to say since I received my acceptance letter in May. Recently, I've ran into people and have told them what I'm pursuing and they have generally been happy. But for some reason they always have to make reference to my race and me getting accepted to the BSN program. A women said to me that I'm lucky because not too many of "You" get into this program. Now I know she didn't mean anything negative by it and I see were she was coming from. I live in Cali but the area in which I live there aren't many applying or getting in. But of course there are many factors and maybe they'd like to pursue something else. But she hasn't been the 1st person to point that out and it just got me thinking. I just don't want to feel like when I get into the program I'm going to have to work extra hard to prove something. I know the program I'm entering is very good and their faculty are great so I have nothing to worry about. I'm going to work just as hard as anyone else like I've been doing for the last 3 years. Race isn't a factor and I've never even let it affect me or hold me back. I've made it this far with my Brains and hard work and I'm going to continue to do just that. Like I said those statements just got me thinking and that's all. Everything is all good lol. I'm excited to be starting and look forward to what's to come : D Feel free to comment if you'd like.

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The only person you have to prove anything to is yourself. I can't say that I know where you are coming from because I don't. I am not African American. You just go out there and do your thing like you have been doing. You success will be a testament to Your hard work. Congratulations and the very best of wishes. :)

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I had a very mixed class in So Cal and didn't see any blatent issues present. You have your head screwed on straight for any student no matter what-gonna do whatcha have to do to get whatcha want to get. Good luck!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I'm an African-American female who was born and raised in southern California and I think the people who make comments are intending no harm. During the many years that I lived there, I personally saw very few black nurses in healthcare facilities in CA. I now live in a large city in another state where black nurses are far more prevalent.

Anyhow, keep striving to achieve, succeed, and be the best person that you possibly can. Knowledge is power, and no one can ever take an education away from you.

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Specializes in Surgical Nursing.

No matter what we do in life or where we go, we will almost always run into negative people. Don't let em get to you, in fact, use them for your fuel! Keep up your hard work and show em what you're made of! 8)

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Kudos for starting on the BSN road.

I live in a very diverse area of the country -- Houston is the most diverse city in the US, according to the latest census data -- so we have a great diversity in nursing. We're very lucky to also be the home of Prairie View School of Nursing -- Prairie View was originally established as the state university for black students and even today, the majority of the student population is African American. They turn out some really great nurses! According to the last updates for our area, the most unrepresented groups are Hispanic, (SE) Asian and Male. LOL. You'd think that increasing the number of Hispanic nurses would be easy, but it seems that among traditional Latino families, nursing is not exactly an approved career for girls. There are also a lot of continuing issues related to the lack of adequate High School preparation for minority kids.

Now - you wanna talk minority? My daughter is a software engineer working for a multinational company. In her (Japanese owned) multinational workplace, she is one of 3 females (of 300+ employees) and the only caucasian native English speaker. Yep, she says they notice if she misses a meeting - LOL!!

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Wait, what? I know this mentality exists, but to see it so blatant makes me go cross eyed.

Half of our staff is African American...or flat out African! It's amazing to work with these ladies who come from varied cultures. And most of the nursing students we get in as externs are not caucasian. I just don't get this mentality of "you're lucky you got in". Well, welcome to the new millenia where we are too busy fighting over chicken sandwiches to worry ourselves with color...which...may or may not be a good thing. LOL That's a discussion for another day.

The fact is, you stood on your merit. You stood on your grades and application process, and the only reason you are lucky you got in, is because you earned it. Feel proud. Feel happy and feel confident. YOU DID IT!

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

Ummm, ok. Well meaning or not, I would be lost on how to respond to that. Are you sure she was referring to race and not applicants in general if it's a selective school?

I'm a Caramel Delight (the name I've chosen for half black/half white, spread the word ;) ) and I'm one of the 2 African American students in my class. In Houston we're very racially diverse and there are a ton of African American nurses, but my area is very low on the AA population; so of course there won't be many in my program.

I've never even considered the possibility that it would be an issue, but that's probably because no one has ever brought it to my attention. If someone said something like that to me, I'd probably have the same thoughts as you.

However, someone somewhere is always a rarity. Maybe you're breaking boundaries you didn't even know were there, and forging paths for people who will come after you. That would be pretty cool! :)

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The only person you have to prove anything to is yourself. I can't say that I know where you are coming from because I don't. I am not African American. You just go out there and do your thing like you have been doing. You success will be a testament to Your hard work. Congratulations and the very best of wishes. :)

Beautiful!!!

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I too am an African American nursing student and it doesn't matter how she meant it (racial or not) , just use comments like that as fuel to your fire to succeed!!!! I do!!!

Congrats on your acceptance and best of Luck to you!!!

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Specializes in Oncology.

Depending on who said it and how they said it, I wouldn't think anything of it.

Minorities (men, non-white) were not treated any differently in my program. If anything, they were welcomed and seen as a statement of diversity. We had few in our class, but they were just fine. The only time a racial conversation occurred in class was specifically in a diversity workshop where the boys and black females were asked what it was like to be in the program of mostly white females. We also had a lesbian student and some international students in our class, and again they fit in just fine.

Just keep in mind that everyone in your class made similar grades and have similar reasons for attending nursing school. Regardless of their skin color, it's a great accomplishment! Don't let race be a factor for you and I think you'll find that reasonable people won't let it be a factor for them either.

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Thank you guys for all of your positive comments. I really appreciate it. I'm going to do my best in the program and not let anything or anyone get to me. I just have to keep my head up.

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