My biggest passion in life is advocating for the equality of underrepresented and marginalized communities, including women, the lower class, those of color, and other groups that are purposefully separated from the dominant, normative society. Many of the ways in which I express these efforts and challenge these types of bigotries that occur in covert and overt forms, is by providing a supportive and empathetic alliance for these groups. This is done by holding those accountable who commit prejudicial offenses, as well as participating in organized efforts in order to increase activism, awareness, and compassion for these victims of social injustice to ultimately achieve equality for every deserving individual, regardless of their social context.
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While shopping for discounted materials, I noticed there was a Latina mother with her toddler son at the register, paying for their mass amount of items. Her son was quickly becoming restless from waiting in line for so long and began to get louder and seemingly disruptive, according to the other shoppers’ facial expressions and stares. He was begging his mother to buy him a Snoopy stuffed animal, and finally, desperate to get her son to settle down, the mother asked the cashier how much the doll was, in which the white, cashier merely responded “you can’t afford it.” Not only was this mother visibly astounded by this response, I, too, could not believe that these biased words were just blatantly vocalized. The cashier then suggested that the little boy go find something “cheaper” in “the back of the store,” despite the fact that she had just purchased several items. Although this family soon left after this racist encounter, I then decided I would not spend my hard earned money at a place that racially stereotypes and demeans people based off the color of their skin. As soon as I made my way towards the door, the cashier friendly asked why I was leaving so soon, however, this was only because my white skin color stereotyped me as able to “afford” these items that she assumed the other woman could not. It was then I simply replied while walking out, “you know, that was a very racist thing to say to that woman,” in efforts to stand behind this woman victimized by verbal
While shopping for discounted materials, I noticed there was a Latina mother with her toddler son at the register, paying for their mass amount of items. Her son was quickly becoming restless from waiting in line for so long and began to get louder and seemingly disruptive, according to the other shoppers’ facial expressions and stares. He was begging his mother to buy him a Snoopy stuffed animal, and finally, desperate to get her son to settle down, the mother asked the cashier how much the doll was, in which the white, cashier merely responded “you can’t afford it.” Not only was this mother visibly astounded by this response, I, too, could not believe that these biased words were just blatantly vocalized. The cashier then suggested that the little boy go find something “cheaper” in “the back of the store,” despite the fact that she had just purchased several items. Although this family soon left after this racist encounter, I then decided I would not spend my hard earned money at a place that racially stereotypes and demeans people based off the color of their skin. As soon as I made my way towards the door, the cashier friendly asked why I was leaving so soon, however, this was only because my white skin color stereotyped me as able to “afford” these items that she assumed the other woman could not. It was then I simply replied while walking out, “you know, that was a very racist thing to say to that woman,” in efforts to stand behind this woman victimized by verbal