By Alan

I grew up in a Bahá’i family with one brother. I started playing soccer in 2nd grade and loved it. I was captain of my team. During middle school, I was drafted to the highly competitive travel team. When I got to high school, everyone on that team already knew me and was excited to have me join. I went to the high school soccer tryouts and was the only non-white player. The coach told me, “Boy, you don’t have no instincts,” and I did not make the team. Everyone was shocked. Parents of other team members removed their kids from the team because they saw the prejudice in the coach’s decision. My father contacted the coach about his decision and experienced unfairness due to prejudice as well. My father explained that prejudice is in others, and I will have to confront it throughout my life as a biracial individual. Experiencing such unfairness due to prejudice reinforced my belief in how wrong it is and in the Bahá’í principles of unity. No one should have their potential constrained due to prejudice. Fortunately, I believe society has progressed, and my experience is less likely to happen today.

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