Reflection About Prejudice

I am no immigrant. I have been living in this country ever since I was born. My brother, sister, and I are all first generation citizens. Both of my parents were born in Mexico, and at an early age came to the United States. They are now living happily in the U.S as citizens. Growing up I only spoke one language, Spanish. Being Mexican this was the only way I could communicate up until kindergarten. Although it was such a long time ago, I remember how hard it was for me to adjust. I know I had a strong accent, and I was sometimes ashamed of it. On occasion I remember accidentally speaking Spanish to my classmates. “Did you finish your homework?" “Si, todo esta-”. “I mean, yeah, all done.” I often got these confused looks on their face whenever this happened. The next year in first grade I became accustomed to English. I no longer spoke spanish to my parents. When the realization that I could no longer speak Spanish hit my parents, they were shocked. Personally I was also disappointed. Especially today, in a school with a general population of Hispanics I would love to be able to converse with them. I often get people asking if I speak Spanish and I tell them why I can’t, but can understand what the words mean. All because I did not want to look different in a school where people were primarily white back then. I don’t recall many people of my race at this school at all.

When I was five years old I spoke better English than my parents did. This brought its challenges. I was the bridge that connected my parents to the rest of the world. I did not mind till I got older. Around age ten I began to feel ashamed. I am the daughter of two Mexican immigrants. I remember waiters at a restaurant's getting annoyed at my parents because they claimed they couldn't understand them. Then I would have to interfere and order for my family. I felt the racist undertones behind stares. I felt different and I didn't like it. I didn't want to be like my parents for a long time. I didn't like getting stared at or being frowned at. Very bluntly- I wanted to be white.

Prejudice is when we have a preconceived opinion about someone or a group of people that is formed without knowledge, or even a real understanding about them.

My parents both came to this country at a very young age. My father was 16 when he first moved to the U.S. and my mother years later moved when she was 19. I am a child of immigrants and it was hard growing up. I consider myself a Mexican American or Chicana. I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and later moved to Las Vegas. As I asked my father what he had to deal when he first moved he said “people would discriminate me just because I couldn’t speak well English and because of my brown skin”. “I was only 16 and wanted to live the American dream, but it was more like hell in America”. A lot of people are discriminated every day just because they aren’t Caucasian/white Americans, but they’re still American they live here and have a living here.

Through my life I have usually been on the receiving end of racist comments, such as wetback fieldworker etc. In seventh grade I had to go to a public school because of moving reasons and that is where the comments started. I can honestly say that it was the worst experience of my life. There were only two Mexican in my class; I was one of them. The other student was also Mexican, but the catch was that he was a well know soccer player. I also played soccer, but I was not the all-pro player. Since he was so good and so well know no one ever said a word to him. The first day at school everyone was nice to me. The first couple days were great, Everyone was friendly and willing to accept me. Going into my second week of school I

Throughout my life I have known many Hispanics who have been told racist or discriminatory comments. To me, those people are strong because they must be able to keep their composure and ignore those horrible people. I had my own experience in which someone made a rude comment towards my mom. I was about eleven or twelve years-old. I was in the store with my mom ready to pay our stuff. The cashier started asking my mom if she wanted to apply for a credit card, but my mom didn’t speak english. I started translating for her, but I was struggling a bit. I realized that we were taking a long time and holding up the line. Suddenly there was this lady behind us was getting frustrated. The lady made the typical comment, “this is America, learn how to speak english”. That was probably the first time I have heard anyone say something like that. Naturally I got angry, and I told my mom. My mom seemed to not be bothered by the comment. I was shocked and confused because my mom never lets things of that kind go. Once we got to the car, I asked her why she didn’t say anything. She replied with, “ I have heard so many people say that before, but we must keep living our lives because what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. After that day I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my life. I learned that you shouldn’t be bothered by rude comments from others. All that matters is how you perceive yourself because at the end of the day you only have yourself. You must stay strong and keep fighting for your purpose and not allow other from distracting

I can’t count the times that people told me that “this is America, you should speak English” or “In my times you never heard another language around, this is getting worst.” I honestly, laughed about their immatureness and ignorance, specially when I found out that there is no official language in the United States and that this country was built with immigrants around the from all over the world. However, there was a time that I really got insulted and humiliated by the comments of a person, It was during the summer of 2009, I had two months in the United States, a man in his 40’s came to the grocery I used to work as a high school student and ordered a sub. The problem began when he perceived that I was calling a friend, who used to take the orders because he knew a little English, the man in the 40’s started by saying “this is America you should know English” and then passed to talk about my complexion and all the things he would do to me that might not be appropriate in a college

In 1993, my father, mother, and one year old sister moved to North Carolina. There he faced some more prominent discrimination. My father was making phone calls to check for listings for apartments that were for rent in Raleigh. A lady answered and he told her his name. With his name and accent she could probably tell he was Latino. She had told him that they prefer not to rent to Latinos, which was disheartening to hear. I asked him if he thought that could still occur today. He replied, “I hope not, but

My father is Mexican, and my mother is White. I was born in California, however, when was 4 yrs. old we moved to Mexico. We did not returned to the United States till I turned 15 yrs. old. Although my first language was English, once I moved to Mexico, I became fluent in Spanish. Life coming back to America was hard, I did understand English perfectly since my mother always spoke to us in English, however, and I could no longer speak it. I was placed in ELL classes, and although I was very smart in many subjects, because I did not speak English, I was placed in easy classes, where we did nothing. They focus so much on learning the language that they fail to teach you. I survived; however, I knew the other classmates looked down at us. They would not speak to us, and they will make rude racial comments when referring to any of us.

My parents can speak eight languages - passionate, picturesque languages that express their ancestral pride. To me, my parents were the smartest people in the world. To others, they were the opposite - immigrants who “couldn’t speak English.” They understand it perfectly, but have always been patronized because of their broken accent. I’ve grown up seeing them belittled constantly. My first memory of this is at a bank with my mother. The teller was not taking her seriously, rolling her eyes and making no effort to understand. I repeated what my mom said, but l wish I had confronted her about her ignorance rather than tolerating it and speaking for my mother.

As human beings, we all think different and judge people based on the values our intermediate community teach us. I was walking home from school when a group of teenagers pass in a car and offended me they said, “you need to go back to Mexico where you belong.” I did not reply nothing probably because I was intimidated but for sure I felt anger and humiliation. I talked to my mother about this experience and she told me, “make sure you do not do the same to other people and to report it to the right people when it

In today’s world, there are many social issues, like poverty, vandalism and unemployment. However, prejudice has become the most dramatic one. Prejudging people for their appearance is a common practice that humans perform. People are not only ridiculed for their color, but also by their religion, sex or age. Therefore, I consider that racism, ageism and sexism are the three major problems in our society and we need to cease them immediately. Much of our world’s history were based upon racism. In the 1600’s, white men used Africans as slaves and treated them as they were not human. "Colored" people were not even allowed to use the same drinking fountains as white people. Fortunately, in the last three decades, race

In any society, how we see ourselves and how others treat us depends on many factors. Race, ethnicity, and cultural background are identifiers of individuals. Most people have confronted prejudice based on these identifiers, either personally experiencing discrimination or knowing someone who has. Beyond ensuring organizational compliance with a country’s anti-discrimination laws, it is incumbent upon managers to support diversity in the workplace and to be culturally competent.

I’m native American someone who is indigenous to north America. I came to this identity at young age because both my parent practice our traditional ways and culture beliefs. My identity to me is very important because it plays profound impact for shaping me. It native cultural we do a lot of ceremony’s and I took part in at young age. To Native people our traditions is very sacred thing to us and I’ve always felt that way. I remember witnessing a ceremony around 7 or 8, we went south Dakota to attend sun dance. It ceremony where you don’t eat or drink for four days and you offer of your flesh by tying rope to a tree and you piece little wood stakes on each side of your chest and you lean back until the stakes are rip out of your chest. After that you do your back by dragging 7 buffalo skulls across the ground until they rip out of skin. Seeing never bother to me but it was very powerful thing to see and I think that when I started to get into my heritage. After that I learn how to dance, sing traditional songs and learn from elder on how to make native flutes. They’re was powerful experience I had in 8th grade that to me made taught me prejudice can happen from any color person and I think that when society taught me who I am. I was harassed by Latino kid in class and I did something to piss him off and his response was “go back to your home land” I was furious to hear this so I punch him in face. After 8th grade I left Sonoma county and went to boarding school for only

For several times, I was being discriminated against not only because of my English mastery but also my Chinese accent. The most embarrassing one took place at the first day of my school. As a person of Chinese decent, I was extremely nervous while I had reached the admission office. After waited for nearly an hour in the line, I eventually got the chance to