I'll admit that when I first met her, I didn't like her. Who am I talking about? Stephanie Mendes. The six-foot-tall, sexy young Black woman who tried out for the Blackstone University Varsity Cheerleading Squad and became its Captain. Why didn't I like her? It had to do with her almost supernatural beauty, her extremely bossy ways and her attitude. Now, don't get me wrong. We welcome racial and cultural diversity at Blackstone University. There are thirty young women on the Squad and eleven of us are from minority backgrounds. We have Asian, Hispanic and Middle-Eastern girls on the Cheerleading Squad. Stephanie became the first Black Cheerleader at the school. An instant celebrity and darling of the media. I saw her as my rival. I really didn't intend to fall in love with her.
My name is Amber O'Shea. A five-foot-nine, lean and athletic, blonde-haired and green-eyed young woman of Irish descent living in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. I attend the most diverse school in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Blackstone University. It has eleven thousand students and forty one percent of them are of African-American, Middle-Eastern, Asian, Hispanic or Native American descent. The school's tenth President, Dr. Rosa Angels, is a Black woman. She graduated from the Blackstone University MBA program in 1989. Twenty one years later, she's the school's first female President and its first African-American President as well.
A lot of people think I'm some chick from a sheltered life because of my background. I can't stand that. Seriously. Get to know me before you judge me. Before attending Blackstone University, I was a student at Saint William Academy, a private Catholic school. I attended that school on an academic scholarship. You see, my parents are dirt-poor. I worked hard to get where I am, that's all. I'm not one of those snobby White chicks you hear about. I publicly dated a tall, handsome young Black man named Trevor James Whitaker. T.J. to his friends. He now plays football for Boston College, Blackstone University's archrivals. I loved Trevor. And the fact that he dumped me for a Black chick named Josephine right before the Senior Class Prom didn't make me hate his guts. It just made me swear off men altogether.
I've always hung out with people based on mutual interests and personality rather than race or religion. My father, Anthony O'Shea died when I was real young. And my mother, Elisabeth O'Shea married a Japanese businessman named Edwin Yamamoto. That's right, my stepfather is Japanese. My mother bore him a son, my half-brother Josiah Yamamoto. I love my brother and my stepfather. These days, Josiah Yamamoto is the Senior Class President at Saint William Academy. And I support him in everything he does because he's family. Yeah, I come from a working-class multicultural family. You would never guess that by looking at me. I'm not a WASP. I'm a down to earth kind of Boston chick.
When I enrolled at Blackstone University, I wanted to join the women's basketball team. Most of the girls on the team were either Black or Hispanic, with an Asian chick here and there. I can play basketball pretty well. In fact, I met my ex-boyfriend while playing basketball with some male friends at the YMCA. However, since I'm short and not particularly fast, I didn't fare too well against these tall and rough-and-tumble chicks. I wanted to play a sport but what were my options? Blackstone University fields men's and women's basketball, men's baseball, women's softball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's Ice Hockey, men's Football and women's Equestrian. Basketball is the only sport I know how to play. I tried out for the women's swim team but failed miserably. I'm not a good swimmer. Not all White chicks are swimmers. Get it through your head.
My last option for an athletically challenging extracurricular activity was the varsity cheerleading squad. I tried out and made it. The cheer captain was this mean-spirited Irish redhead named Monica O'Bannon. I couldn't stand that bitch, and neither could most of her 'followers'. She put me through hell simply for being the new gal on the block. I resisted the urge to punch her lights out. When I heard that she got in a car accident and couldn't cheer for the rest of the season, I was extremely happy. I wanted to become the cheerleading team captain. And now I had my shot. Or so I thought.
Unfortunately, this tall and extremely gorgeous young Black woman came along and blew my dream out of the sky. Stephanie Mendes came from Brockton Community High School, where Black and Hispanic cheerleaders are quite common. Brockton is a city not far from Metropolitan Boston where people of African-American, Asian and Hispanic descent outnumber Whites. Their schools are really diverse. I hang out t Brockton's Westgate Mall sometime. It's pretty cool. Stephanie was a Brockton gal through and true. And she had a lot of experience in all things related to cheerleading.
When Stephanie joined the varsity cheerleading team, the national media came and everyone was rooting for her. The first Black woman to join the Blackstone University varsity cheerleading squad. CNN had the nerve to call us a lily-White squad even though we had Asian, Hispanic and even Pakistani cheerleaders on the team. Wow. The Black Entertainment Television ( BET) news crew took many pictures of Stephanie Mendes and ignored the rest of us. I don't have a problem with a sexy young Black woman succeeding. I really don't. However, I didn't feel she deserved all the attention she got. Nobody made a fuss when I joined the team. Of course, blonde-haired White chicks are common on cheerleading squads. We're nothing unusual or special in the eyes of the media. However, when a hot woman from a minority background joins a cheerleading squad, it's front page news. I just love this, don't you?
