Racism and its effects are still prevalent today. Whether it is in the workplace, school, relationships, judgments by others, actual stated dislike, or passive aggressive discrimination; there are many ways in which it is still in play in the world today. The way I thought about this subject changed as I grew & realized that it wasn’t over & it still exists. Racism turns its ugly head in many forms, but the biggest of these I will delve into are without a shadow of a doubt the ones that helped change my own way of thinking. Growing up in NY, I went to a private Christian school; which was less than to my liking. Out of all of the students in the school there were only four, to my knowledge, who were black & one or two who were Latino.
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I was working at the local food store; free of high school. I am now more aware of race, how people treat others who were not white, etc. I had stopped finding racist jokes funny & I was done with my now ex-friends who were racist. To me they were things of the past. This job proved that people hadn’t changed; even though it had been years. Obama was President, as he still currently is, & people were mad that an N slur had won the presidency; not only once, but twice! It was like high school all over again. There were clicks & most of the employees; including myself were, you guessed it, white. A few black people & only one of Indian descent, but overall white as a snowy day up in Vermont. People didn’t hang out with other races and they certainly didn’t date them. Guys would mock the woman who ran the front kiosk desk by imitating her in the back room. No one cared. I said it was inappropriate once, but was ignored by the …show more content…
He was very nice, but very worried about being fired. A friend of his had worked at the same store & gotten laid off; though he had done nothing. Management didn’t trust Eman to move shipment boxes in the back; though white employees were allowed to, including me. People didn’t want a “terrorist” working with them. Thus, he feared he too would soon be sacked. I tried to make him feel as welcome as possible & told him it was OK to tell other employees how his name was pronounced; since they all mispronounced it. Maybe on purpose. I actually don’t know if he was Muslim or not. It doesn’t matter. I notice even now that many people still have these feelings about Muslims; including my own mother who thinks they all want to kill us and are evil. I have considered studying the Middle East and/or Near Eastern studies & her reaction to these passions were less than positive. This showed me that even my own family has problematic behavior/beliefs about people just because of who they are and it had rubbed off on me earlier in my
I was working at the local food store; free of high school. I am now more aware of race, how people treat others who were not white, etc. I had stopped finding racist jokes funny & I was done with my now ex-friends who were racist. To me they were things of the past. This job proved that people hadn’t changed; even though it had been years. Obama was President, as he still currently is, & people were mad that an N slur had won the presidency; not only once, but twice! It was like high school all over again. There were clicks & most of the employees; including myself were, you guessed it, white. A few black people & only one of Indian descent, but overall white as a snowy day up in Vermont. People didn’t hang out with other races and they certainly didn’t date them. Guys would mock the woman who ran the front kiosk desk by imitating her in the back room. No one cared. I said it was inappropriate once, but was ignored by the …show more content…
He was very nice, but very worried about being fired. A friend of his had worked at the same store & gotten laid off; though he had done nothing. Management didn’t trust Eman to move shipment boxes in the back; though white employees were allowed to, including me. People didn’t want a “terrorist” working with them. Thus, he feared he too would soon be sacked. I tried to make him feel as welcome as possible & told him it was OK to tell other employees how his name was pronounced; since they all mispronounced it. Maybe on purpose. I actually don’t know if he was Muslim or not. It doesn’t matter. I notice even now that many people still have these feelings about Muslims; including my own mother who thinks they all want to kill us and are evil. I have considered studying the Middle East and/or Near Eastern studies & her reaction to these passions were less than positive. This showed me that even my own family has problematic behavior/beliefs about people just because of who they are and it had rubbed off on me earlier in my