The Side Of A Mountain Home

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

In the book, Warriors Don’t Cry, there are nine African-American students who chose to get involved in integration within an all-white high school. Many of the white students and parents did not approve of integration and demonstrated their hatred in a variety of ways. All nine of them dealt with an immense amount of torture every day at school. Warriors Don’t Cry shows many specific examples of when white students took their anger to a whole other level and did many brutal things like when they threw acid in Melba Patillo Beals’ face or when they threw small balls of flaming paper into the bathroom stall she was in. Though it’s been 60 years, schools are still very unsafe. School safety is a topic of importance, especially in the present day. As bullying and harassment become more prevalent in schools, students constantly feel insecure. The

Since freshman year I have lived in Rosemead, Los Angeles. The residences are mostly Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese but without a caucasian in sight. This is totally different than what I expected of America, and definitely different than the little village of Pawling in upstate New York where I attend a lily white boarding school. However, I started to blend in; I played basketball. I rode bikes, and I hung out with other teens. We all were basically the same but just embraced different cultures. For instance, the Vietnamese insisted on entire families

Studs Terkel (1980) relates C. P. Ellis' story about how his experiences organizing a union opened his eyes about how corporations treat minorities, and resulted in a new understanding of the people around him even though he was a former Klansman. I have never been in the Klan or organized a union, but a similar turning point for me came for me when I saw the movie "The Eye of the Storm," about Jane Elliot's experiment with white schoolchildren in Riceville, Iowa. This experiment demonstrated to me how children respond to cultural cues first from their parents and family members, but then through the institutions they are forced to participate in like school; the church; other families and supervisory agencies. If even white children can be taught to discriminate against other white children on something as arbitrary and insubstantial as eye color, then how easy it must be to train them to respond in denigrating ways to people with different skin color, body shapes or language for example, I realized. This changed my perspective on racism and ethnicity and while I have since done much research and believe education is the secret, the way I have decided to implement change in my own life, is to speak out when I hear someone making a denigrating comment.

I, being an African-American, got the crucial grievance to be inspired by the relationship of the police and the Ferguson community on the tragedy to highlight the significance of the race. My sociological imagination started influencing me a lot. You are never sure of when and for what people get offended. What is right in my part of living today may be completely unacceptable in some other place. By shifting your social environment you are forced to rethink your path and doubt yourself. You cannot take things for granted.

All of this changed when I found the book, the absolutely true diary of a part time indian, the book was about a poor kid who lived on an Indian reservation, after a dispute with a teacher, he decided to go to a school far from his reservation, what he called the “white” school. In the white school he was bullied due to the fact that he was an Indian and he had a difficult time making friends. I really loved this book since it was the first time I really connected to a book, in elementary school, I was one of the few colored students and the only South Asian one, and I also had an inconvenient time making friends, I found myself looking forward to project

These children got picked on frequently because they were colored. As soon as these students entered school violence erupted. The violence got so bad that even some journalists got attacked. They also received threats and enduring abuse. Imagine trying to learn in an environment where you are constantly mistreated. Reporters from all over the world cam to witness this phenomenon, in little rock nine. This shows how much of an impact this even had.

After sitting here for a while it hit me that we were the only black family on the street. Days went by after my realization, and I started to witness that these people who did not look like me were not as embracing as the people from my old community.

When I was thirteen years old I experienced what I like to label my first true example of aggressive bigotry. I had met racists, religious zealots, and radicals with all sorts of different beliefs that conflicted with mine but but never had I been subjected to any sort forced beliefs in an environment that I had been told was safe. It was a disheartening experience that left me questioning what I really believed and if these people were really of the sterling character I thought they were.

Most of the incidents were white students targeting the black students of various colleges. Many of the issues involved putting up derogatory fliers or defacing preexisting fliers, such as Black Student Union fliers. The posting and defacing of fliers is a covert act rather than one that is overt. There were a few overt instances, though, including students dressing in blackface for Halloween and even the killing of a student. Most of the actions taken against these black students are by other students. These colleges will usually attempt to locate the suspects after an issue in order to take further action. For example, one college suspended a student from the rest of the athletic season after they dressed in blackface at a Halloween party. Frequently, the campus president responds to the hateful actions taken by these students. One campus president wrote a letter to the campus community reading, “To those students who feel targeted by these actions, we are here for you.” To prevent similar incidents in the future, colleges may enforce security more strictly or implement security cameras in dorm halls that lack them. Response teams could also be created in order to quickly attend to issues and threats of

I remember on my sixth birthday my family had taken me out to a buffet. The place we went to was majority filled with people of different minorities. The thing that really got to me, was how separated everyone was based on race. There’d be a portion of the buffet filled with Spanish people, another filled with African Americans, another filled with whites, and so on. I remember thinking how strange it was, and how my family and I have to sit with the Latinos because “that’s where we belong”. Even today, being a senior in a diverse school it’s easy to discern

I was born in South Georgia during the 1960’s and attended elementary school in a small predominately white town. There was a segregation between the white and African American parts of town with separate schools, grocery stores, and churches. During these years we were not allowed to have any friends that were not white. My parents always stated that they were not prejudice but their actions spoke to the contrary.

Growing up in a home where formal education was considered of little value, and people of other races and ethnicities were considered as less than or undesirable, I came to adulthood with an incredible deficit of knowledge about the world around me. My family of origin lived in an abyss of bigotry, prejudice, and financial and spiritual poverty. They seldom socialized with people of color or anyone who would be considered a minority by the standards of our society. There was little tolerance in the home for anyone who was "different". People of color or a different ethnicity was not to be trusted. Fear of diversity was the reigning rule. Education was simply considered a state requirement until high school, then it became a non issue. Achieving a high school diploma was ok (even though it wasn 't considered a necessity), but anyone who had worked to obtain a college degree, was considered "uppity" and was privately spoken about with scorn. Religion was simple, you were told that there was a God and that He was always waiting to punish you, but you lived as though God did not exist. However, God had a different plan for my life, and at age 11 I was given the

“Freedom of speech is not equal to hate speech and hate speech should not be tolerated.” This was a part of a speech that I gave during a rally at Michigan State University (MSU), and it was also a slogan written on my picket sign. What would seem liked a complete flashback to the sixties was a reality being faced by minority students on campus during my final year at State. I myself had even been a victim of hate on campus. I was walking outside of my dormitory alone, waiting for my friends to meet me, when I was called a “nigger bitch” by a group of unidentified white, male students. This moment was hurtful for many reasons, but powerful at the same time because it launched me from being just a student learning in the classroom, to an activist protesting on campus; an activist finally starting to take true ownership of her identity and fighting for her rights.

When I take the time to reflect on what social forces have impacted my life a lot comes to mind. I was born and raised in San Jose, California which is a very multicultural area with people of all ethnic backgrounds. There was a specific juncture in my life that impacted me at a very young age. When I was about 7 or 8 years old my mom took my friend Zac and I to Burger King. While we were sitting there eating and just talking about typical things a 7 or 8 year old would talk about an elderly caucasian male approached us. Now looking back on the situation it was apparent that he was either drunk or under the influence of something. He then proceeded to start throwing racial slurs at me, and started questioning us. In his words “ why a white would be friends with a black “ in a belligerent manner. He continued, so mom called the cops and he was arrested for public intoxication. At the time I was baffled as to why he would say such things, especially to a child. I now realize in his socialization period it was a social constraint for caucasians to be friends with a minority or even sit next to or converse with one. Its unfortunate that people still haven 't come to accept social change, but more importantly I was aware of how prejudice some people are at a very young age due to this instance. Social facts are aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals (Giddens, 2014, pg. 11). Being a victim of discrimination, seeing my mom and grandparents succeed, and