College Essay

Topic: Bees and African Americans

If it’s red change it!!!!

Intro- This introduces the comparison of the two

Ahh! That's always the first reaction at the sight of a bee-panic,fear, the urge to smack it away. After watching "The Bee Movie", I began to think more deeply about how society views bees. The more I thought about it, the more I noticed the striking and painful similarities: bees and African Americans are often treated the same-met with fear, misunderstanding, and unfair judgment. I have known both firsthand and through history that African Americans are treated differently. What shocked me was how similar the mistreatment of bees mirrored the way society treats us-even though without us, the world would stop spinning.

First paragraph - Start with African Americans and your personal anecdotes

In school, I've always experienced the same "misunderstanding" throughout my entire academic career. White teachers constantly mixed me up with any other black girl in my class.

Despite the fact we look nothing alike, we had different personalities and sat on opposite sides of the room. It always made me feel invisible, less than a person , like I didn't matter at all.

All because the only thing they noticed was our skin color. Just like bees, we aren't ever seen for our individuality, only met by assumptions and fear.

Third paragraph - Continue with African Americans and your personal anecdotes

Another Instance of this is when I decided to join my high school’s leadership class. When I joined it I thought I was going to gain more leadership skills,advocate for my grade, and get outside of my comfort zone since it was my freshman year of high school. Instead, I was met with discrimination and quiet hostility.

In the class we were divided into committees like decor,assembly,food, business, and tech. When all of the peer grades were done our group had to have a meeting with the teachers to review the grades our team gave us. During this unit I was a part of the group in charge of feeding our school.

When my group finished grading, we had to sit down for our teacher meeting. The teachers informed me that some of my group members forgot to submit their evaluations-and somehow, they placed the blame on me.The teachers said it was because “I didn’t talk enough“.Which was not true. I talked to everyone, but most of the time I was ignored, dismissed, talked over, or shut out. I began to wonder- did they only treat me that way because I was black?

That class made me feel out of place and unwanted. It felt like they wanted me to play into a minstrel show stereotype-loud, performative, and entertaining. Why did I have to be the entertainment? I’m not a circus act or a zoo exhibit. I am a real person with ideas,thoughts, and feelings- and I won’t make myself small to fit in someone’s degrading fantasy.

fourth paragraph- About bees and the comparison of bees and butterflies (this can be a metaphor for the contrast between African Americans and Caucasians)

Bees and butterflies both pollinate flowers however they’re efforts aren’t appreciated in the same way. When people see butterflies they take pictures, let them land on their hands, and even release them at their weddings. But when they see a bee doing the same job they scream, run, or try to kill them. I’ve slowly been examining this instance and realized this relates to my life more than I realized. When I was in the store looking at purses to buy the workers saw that as me plotting to steal.While when another young white girl was doing the same thing they thought that was sweet. innocent. and non-threatening .

This essay not only changed my outlook on the world and bees it helped me evolve into a better person overall. Yes bees seem scary but they're really just like me minding their business, helping the environment, and working hard to help everyone despite people hating every fiber of your existence.

Fifth paragraph - Write about why these two are a perfect comparison and the significant impact it has had on society and most importantly YOUR LIFE! Then wrap it up with a question that leaves them pondering

This comparison of African Americans and bees shows the similarity’s and mistreatment of species that are huge contributors to society. “The Bee movie” displays that without them bee’s society would fall. It’s odd because the same thing is true for African Americans in society because without us society would fail. Which is why I always pondered why I get treated so differently from others around me ? I never wished to be white or any other race or ethnicity because African Americans literally run the world- I literally am made for great!

I just wanted to be treated with the same or more respect and dignity as my white counterparts. Looking in retrospect I came to the conclusion that white people only treated me that way because they were jealous of my greatness since they had to live they’re own boring and miserable lives and misery loves company. However I never let jealously stop me I just learned how to simply not care about what others say or do because throughout life I’ll always have haters and those are your biggest motivators.

Like the Bee Movie said "According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don't care what humans think is impossible". Meaning despite being set up for failure they’ll always prevail . Just like bees I’ll always prevail despite the chips being stacked against me since birth because I come from greatness and will always achieve the impossible!