Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Racial Tensions/ Discrimination
Well, I do not live in Springfield. To be honest, I grew up 20 minutes outside of Springfield just west of a small farming town of Williamsville, with a population density of 99.018 percent white. I didn't grow up with people of different races, just caucasian. Even though I grew up in a almost entirely white community, that doesn't I mean I have racial prejudices. People sterotype those who grow up in one ethnicity town and that they say terrible things about people of a different ethnicity. When I started working at the Illinois State Fairgrounds at the age of sixteen, that was my real first encounter with kids my age but of a different color. They kept to themselves, they were in their own circle. We worked together cleaning buildings, mowing the grounds, in preparation for the fair. I have been working there every summer since sixteen, and I have not witnessed anything that would be discrimatory. I keep to myself, I do not say anything insulting (actually, I usually don't say anything at all) when I am around others of a different ethnicity. The state is fulfilling its obligation by employing everyone that wants to be hired. They are not being discrimatory. Perhaps, I was brought up in an area that has this sort of thing happen or I just have not had the opportunity to go to larger cities that have these kinds of problems like gang violence. However, through my church I went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago and I attended a lecture on gang violence in Chicago, and how teenagers are being killed just because they wore the wrong kind of clothing. The lecture made me aware of a problem that is not just in Chicago but in other urban areas.
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i too had a hard time trying to identify a single time when i was in the presence of a discriminatory act. even with a black father, i have never witnessed anything bias with him, if anything he has some sort of power because he knows everybody. but in my post i did talk about how kids at my high school were being sent home for wearing plain white tshirts. the administrators said they were gang related. chicago is probably a good place to find racial tension, but alot of the gang violence is done by the same race. blacks killing black, latinos killing latinos. this is true for most killers as well. most of their victims are actually people that of the same race and or attractive to them in some sort of way.
ReplyDeleteI too grew up in a town outside of Springfield and I think we only had like 2 kids in my graduating class that were not Caucasian. I, like you do not discriminate and I actually get offended when people do. I don’t know about how it is in your town but a lot of people in mine are racist. Those 2 kids that were not white were made fun of and not given an easy time. The thing is I believe that all depend on the person and how open minded the person is to the world, as to whether or not they accept racism as acceptable or ignorance. If someone has the mindset that anything that is different from what they were taught is wrong, then maybe living in a town that has nearly all Caucasian people is something that will make them racist. The stereotype that is given to people from small areas like these is not always true. This is proven by people like you and I that are open minded and accept all people as people and not by the color of their skin.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm glad to say that other than the one incident in grade school, I have't been exposed to that much discrimiation. It is obvious thought that it still goes on. Every once in a while I hear comments from acquantaces that slide into that when they comment on someone driving or prices somewhere or other types of comments. My son has had a few instances where a child called another child racial names. The child doing the name calling though is already smoking pot in the 6th grade, so that gives you an idea of the type of child. THe good thing is that the other children did not like or accept this kind of treatment.
ReplyDeletei didn't grow up in a big town or city. I haven't seen that much discrimination. Whenever your not around it or you don't witness it you don't think about it. There was just one time in Springfield that i witnessed discrimination. Otherwise i agree with what you said how/ you live in a town that has all caucasins. If i lived in a city like New York then i might run in to that problem. I don't think that's fair because we all our human. There is only a short time we are on this earth and we should make the most of it.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the same area, I also don't like the fact that people stereotype us because we grew up in a majority white community. However, I did hangout with people who did have racist tendencies, and I heard things at school that would have offended most people. While I don't think that I am racist, I have heard all of the stereotypes and the jokes, and I know that it has affected me somewhat. While I never act discriminatory or say anything discriminatory in public, I still join in on the jokes sometimes, even though I know it's wrong.
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