She rose above everyone and showed them who she is! The fight was hard and painful but it was worth it. But how she chose her place in society and overcame all prejudices against the Roma, told Alexandra Aleksandrović (28) from Novi Sad.
- Yes, I was discriminated against because of my skin color and because I am Roma. There are different ways of discrimination.
When I was in the third grade in elementary school, the teacher separated the white children from the dark ones. The white children were placed in the first pews at the front, and the dark-skinned children were placed in the last pews, with one empty space between those pews.
Whenever I raised my hand to answer her questions, she ignored me. As if we, the darker kids from the last clubs, didn't exist - Alexandra reminds of her childhood.
- I came home in tears and told my father what was happening. The next day my father went to school, talked to the teacher and the situation was no longer like that.
But after a few days, the teacher, while checking our homework, asked me, Alexandra, are you Roma? And I answered: "Yes, I am a Roma". At that moment there was silence and silence, the children looked at me, as if I had said something terrible and terrible.
- We are all aware that when you are a child, you experience it all intensively, that then many things are traced and the foundations for the future life are laid.
- Otherwise, discrimination and racism still exist. but what I can do is not let it affect my psyche, and not let me fall.
- Parallel to the elementary school, I also attended a lower music school in "Isidor Bajić" in Novi Sad and my main instrument was the harmonica. Then I enrolled in secondary music school, the main instrument was the piano, but I also kept the accordion and played in the orchestra.
Then I enrolled at the Academy of Arts. study program Ethnomusicology, with the main instrument tambourine and piano. After graduation, I enrolled in Master's studies at the Theater, drama department at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. I attended the winter semester in Novi Sad, and the summer semester in Norway in the city of Bergen through the Erasmus student exchange program. I successfully defended the master's degree and the thesis entitled: "Interculturality through the teaching units in the subjects of music and mathematics" and obtained a master's degree in drama pedagogy, Alexandra mentioned.
