Being the Minority

I have had an experience in college where I was the minority and I feel like this is the place to talk about that experience. It wasn't a traumatizing thing, but it was definitely something that got me thinking. My sophomore year I took an African American Literature class and I loved the literature that we read, however, I was one of the minority in a class of mostly African American students. Now I'm not saying that these students lived through slavery, however, they did have ancestors how probably did and I always felt like my opinion was less then theirs because I wasn't African American. And I know that is not fair to say, because as a white person I do not hold the opinion of what all white people feel and think, so maybe this isn't an example of being a minority, but I guess what bothered me most was that whenever I said a comment I felt the judgement and I love literature and characters as much as the next English major. Also, it probably didn't help that every time a certain girl answered a question another girl behind me said "she doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about". This kind of comment made me afraid to comment in class and it shouldn't have because isn't what we have learned in class that it is ok, even encouraged to be critical of texts? And this is an example where I would reiterate to students that it is important to be empathic towards their peers. True, these peers of mine may not have been slaves, but they have the history, whereas I may not and therefore it is vital for me to be empathic when giving my opinion/comments.
Another interesting component to the class was that my instructor was a white woman. The first day of class she stood at the front and said "yeah, I'm white, but I love literature so what does it matter?" I loved how she said that, because even though society does do it, we shouldn't look at literature by color. And I wish I would have listened harder to what she said then, because I do love literature and I love analyzing and being critical of it and I always try to do so with an empathic heart.