After learning a few things in this class I look back to where I come from and I cannot believe that I didn’t realize what was happening from the beginning. I look back to my school, my workplace, and my overall community. There are many different events where I now notice that race and ethnicity affect my life, which helps determine my social position. Some ways that they do are shown through the different types of discrimination towards people of color. Also, where people have advantages or disadvantages based on their race or gender.
When I look back to my hometown I notice that not everything that they did was fair. I can think of a few events where race and ethnicity have affected my school career through discrimination and advantages …show more content…
When I was a kid I grew up in a neighborhood where most of the children that I played with where of the same racial group. Just like when Dr. Tatum mention in his chapter, he asked his class how many students lived in a neighborhood that most of them where of the same racial group, and most of their hands went up (Tatum:25). I can relate to this because that was how my neighborhood was when I grew up. I didn’t realize that my neighborhood was becoming social segregation because of this, until Dr. Tatum stated that in his section of the book. I feel after reading what he had to say really opened my mind to what my community/ neighborhood was actually like. The segregation in my neighborhood has made advantages and disadvantages for different race groups. One example, is because of the segregation people of color do not want to live in our neighborhood, which means that their children cannot go to the highly educated school because our community has boundaries for each school. So the people of color are at a disadvantage because of the segregation in certain communities. Throughout the years this problem has gotten a lot better, most of our neighborhoods are evenly diverse. Although it has gotten better we still have a few neighbors that believe in racial essence. Racial essence “is seen as the ultimate determinant of racial character and identity” (Smedley & Smedley: 12). An example from my neighborhood is one of the neighbors has an African American background but appears to be white. One of my other neighbors thinks that because he has African American background he carries all of the characteristics of a full African American. I could not believe that my one neighbor still believed this, I thought the world was passed that. But it seems that some people cannot get passed it, I think it is really sad and I hope soon that it will
When I look back to my hometown I notice that not everything that they did was fair. I can think of a few events where race and ethnicity have affected my school career through discrimination and advantages …show more content…
When I was a kid I grew up in a neighborhood where most of the children that I played with where of the same racial group. Just like when Dr. Tatum mention in his chapter, he asked his class how many students lived in a neighborhood that most of them where of the same racial group, and most of their hands went up (Tatum:25). I can relate to this because that was how my neighborhood was when I grew up. I didn’t realize that my neighborhood was becoming social segregation because of this, until Dr. Tatum stated that in his section of the book. I feel after reading what he had to say really opened my mind to what my community/ neighborhood was actually like. The segregation in my neighborhood has made advantages and disadvantages for different race groups. One example, is because of the segregation people of color do not want to live in our neighborhood, which means that their children cannot go to the highly educated school because our community has boundaries for each school. So the people of color are at a disadvantage because of the segregation in certain communities. Throughout the years this problem has gotten a lot better, most of our neighborhoods are evenly diverse. Although it has gotten better we still have a few neighbors that believe in racial essence. Racial essence “is seen as the ultimate determinant of racial character and identity” (Smedley & Smedley: 12). An example from my neighborhood is one of the neighbors has an African American background but appears to be white. One of my other neighbors thinks that because he has African American background he carries all of the characteristics of a full African American. I could not believe that my one neighbor still believed this, I thought the world was passed that. But it seems that some people cannot get passed it, I think it is really sad and I hope soon that it will