Spring Quarter 2010 was very challenging. I was a teaching assistant(TA)intern, teaching 2 classes, taking 2 classes on the side, and a part-time job on weekends. But I got through it as always, passing all my classes. The summer classes were coming up and a week before classes start I finally get the definite answer that my house was being foreclosed and my roommates and I had a week to relocate so we could get a $1,000 check from the Realtor. I spend the first 3 weeks of my Summer Quarter classes trying to find a place where someone needed a new roommate. Every place I went had the same reaction. When they would hear me on the phone and know that my name was Brad Madison, they seemed so excited to see me. When they'd see me get out my car their faces would all drop. I guess a well spoken, big black guy named Brad Madison wasn't what they were expecting. One guy wouldn't even take me seriously and tell me about the place until I told him that I was a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. The place wasn't even all that nice. Lucky a good friend of mine let me sleep on his couch until I found a place of my own.
I decided to just live by myself for now since I couldn't get a roommate. It seemed like the best thing was to have a peaceful place to come home to and work on my thesis. However, I wasn't prepared for what was going to happen next. As I'm sealing the deal to get my first apartment all to myself, the apartment sales associate looks up my background information and says, "Mr. Madison, what's this I see on your record?" I knew exactly what she was talking about and my face dropped in embarrassment. As I explained the situation to her I saw the look of prejudgment set in, but she kindly responded by saying that I could come back tomorrow with the proof of the case so she could show her boss. Luckily her boss carefully looked at the evidence and approved me for the apartment.
After I left the building I became enraged thinking how could this thing not be off my record yet. All the evidence is right their proving my innocence. The fingerprints don't match up and the faces definitely don't match up. I tried not to let this completely consume my time because I had some serious catching up to do on my assignments for class. I figured I would divide my time between classwork. Every bit of free time I had, which was minimal,would go into trying to get this charge off my record. Every time I called down to the Identity Theft Unit in Fort Lauderdale the guy in charge would say, "Call back next week and we should have some work done on your case." This was if he even answered the phone at all and when he did answer the phone he would keep me on hold for long periods without a reply. I began to realize the truth, they just stuck my file in the back of a long list of files never to be thought of again. Identity Theft is a common thing in America. Too common.
Many weeks went by with no visible signs of progress. I wondered if I would ever get these charges off my record. I couldn't focus all of my time on solving the problem because I still had a ton of work to do in my classes and I couldn't fully focus on my classwork because of the charges brought against me. I felt like maybe I was wasting my time in school. How am I supposed to get a job in the video game or animation industry when I couldn't even get a job at McDonald's with my record. In this horrible economy employers are looking for any reason to turn away an application and I had 2 big FAT reasons to get my application turned down. All my life I have tried to stay away from the stereotypical black male image. I always wanted to be remembered as a very talented, hard working, intelligent young man. Now it seemed to society I would be known as Brad Madison, the lazy drug dealer. How could I even write a paper on stereotypes when I've become one?
I considered many times to just quit school for now and focus on getting my record clear. But thanks to the support of my mother, my brother, and my forever inspiring professors at SCAD I had to continue on. Not only for me but to show my little cousins that you can overcome any obstacle no matter how bad it looks. After passing my summer classes I put all my focus on contacting the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. They handled my case on a state level and in time after much patience and persistence in November 2010 they cleared me and closed my case. It was a long hard road back to my thesis. This was a very humbling experience that taught me how to be a man and stand strong against all odds. Now I look to my thesis with all the hope, strength, and determination to finish.
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