Unity in Diversity
For a second I was not a teenager, not a female, not a friend of all, not a species. To simply put it, I was just a student eager to learn the mathematical discipline. I entered the O.Henry middle school classroom as sound introduced itself as a symphony of chatter and shuffling. I began to sit by the young male, his skin on the other side of the spectrum. He aggressively sighed. “I don’t sit by your kind” he scoffed. My mind ran at an accelerated pace as I rummaged in my deepest thoughts to find an explanation. There was no explanation or excuse I could formulate to change the meaning of his words. Suddenly there was a divide …”US” and “THEM” had a negative connotation to it. I …show more content…
US” type of place since I ate my first meal and sipped my first drink. An invisible battled seem to rave on between the races. As a child I often wondered where this invisible battle occurred? Where was it located ? This battle lied in between our perspectives. My previous interactions with indirect and direct racism led me to see Austin as place of segregation and inequality. The early days of Austin had been entrenched in a social divide from the city’s layout to the school system. The minorities lived on my side of Austin and the majority dwelled on their side. They went to their schools and we went to …show more content…
My abuelita smiles. It is her gesture that I am welcome, that part of me is hers and hers mine.We celebrate our ability to be together. Finally, this is my Austin. Hip-Hop mixed in with Spanish music produce something unheard of and we all crowd the room. Foreign drinks and food line the tables. Later on we will be swamped with our differences. In fact, underneath the music and celebration of the party, to my friend Moses, Austin is freedom and opportunity (he is from Mexico.) Austin is freedom and home for Bobby (African American), but neither can stay due to forces beyond their control. He is an African American boy faced by gentrification, not to mention an education system that isn 't presenting him much opportunity. One Black the other Mexican one will leave to Round Rock for affordability. The other will be deported back to Mexico. However, not tonight, tonight we indulge in each other 's existences and love each other up close from different lenses. Tonight we see differently but live in unity and that 's my type of
For a second I was not a teenager, not a female, not a friend of all, not a species. To simply put it, I was just a student eager to learn the mathematical discipline. I entered the O.Henry middle school classroom as sound introduced itself as a symphony of chatter and shuffling. I began to sit by the young male, his skin on the other side of the spectrum. He aggressively sighed. “I don’t sit by your kind” he scoffed. My mind ran at an accelerated pace as I rummaged in my deepest thoughts to find an explanation. There was no explanation or excuse I could formulate to change the meaning of his words. Suddenly there was a divide …”US” and “THEM” had a negative connotation to it. I …show more content…
US” type of place since I ate my first meal and sipped my first drink. An invisible battled seem to rave on between the races. As a child I often wondered where this invisible battle occurred? Where was it located ? This battle lied in between our perspectives. My previous interactions with indirect and direct racism led me to see Austin as place of segregation and inequality. The early days of Austin had been entrenched in a social divide from the city’s layout to the school system. The minorities lived on my side of Austin and the majority dwelled on their side. They went to their schools and we went to …show more content…
My abuelita smiles. It is her gesture that I am welcome, that part of me is hers and hers mine.We celebrate our ability to be together. Finally, this is my Austin. Hip-Hop mixed in with Spanish music produce something unheard of and we all crowd the room. Foreign drinks and food line the tables. Later on we will be swamped with our differences. In fact, underneath the music and celebration of the party, to my friend Moses, Austin is freedom and opportunity (he is from Mexico.) Austin is freedom and home for Bobby (African American), but neither can stay due to forces beyond their control. He is an African American boy faced by gentrification, not to mention an education system that isn 't presenting him much opportunity. One Black the other Mexican one will leave to Round Rock for affordability. The other will be deported back to Mexico. However, not tonight, tonight we indulge in each other 's existences and love each other up close from different lenses. Tonight we see differently but live in unity and that 's my type of