My early childhood lead to my role in some of the problems I have with other groups on campus. I have always been a “homebody” and enjoy doing things with my family or my friends that I have already been close to for years. My core group of friends consisted of mainly white, athletic males that I met through sports and kickball games on the playground. I grew up in a middle class mainly white town, so that did not really surprise me (#2 Challenge to consider privilege/penalty). I think some of my childhood made it hard for me to be accepting of other groups right away because I was never really exposed to them. Until I was eleven or twelve, I was very sheltered and had not really met any African-Americans, Asians, or anyone else who did not look almost exactly the same as I did. I had seen these other groups before, but I had never been exposed to them in more than a passing glance. A lot of the challenges I face with other cultural groups on campus are that I am simply unexposed to them and therefore I do not understand them. I grew up all my life thinking that white people were the majority, they were the only people who I identified with and the only people I could
My early childhood lead to my role in some of the problems I have with other groups on campus. I have always been a “homebody” and enjoy doing things with my family or my friends that I have already been close to for years. My core group of friends consisted of mainly white, athletic males that I met through sports and kickball games on the playground. I grew up in a middle class mainly white town, so that did not really surprise me (#2 Challenge to consider privilege/penalty). I think some of my childhood made it hard for me to be accepting of other groups right away because I was never really exposed to them. Until I was eleven or twelve, I was very sheltered and had not really met any African-Americans, Asians, or anyone else who did not look almost exactly the same as I did. I had seen these other groups before, but I had never been exposed to them in more than a passing glance. A lot of the challenges I face with other cultural groups on campus are that I am simply unexposed to them and therefore I do not understand them. I grew up all my life thinking that white people were the majority, they were the only people who I identified with and the only people I could