Racism, why?
By santuccie
@santuccie (3384)
United States
November 24, 2008 10:09pm CST
I have never disliked anyone because of their color. All my life, I have lived in a diverse environment. After preschool, I went to a care center called Tri-City Children's Center until I entered into kindergarten at age 5. There aren't many events I remember from this age, but one that I do remember is the day I fell down and scraped myself up a little bit. The first person there was a black boy my age, asking me if I was okay.
I lived in Fremont, CA (US) for twelve years of my life. And it is my understanding that Fremont is home to more Afghan people than any other city in the United States. I worked at Fry's Electronics for two years, and was in fact a minority there. I served the Audio/Video/Telecom/Appliance department under three different managers, two of them Mexican, and one of them black (the black manager was a former pro football player named Theo Adams). Of approximately 300 employees in the store, the vast majority were Afghan, followed by Filipinos. I also seem to remember that American-born blacks were sometimes outnumbered by first- or second-generation African immigrants.
From December of 2000 to mid 2002, I lived in a former Navy barrack on Treasure Island (San Francisco) to take vocational training in Business at Job Corps. Here, I was one of 800-850 students in a highly diversified environment. Since a lot of Treasure Island Job Corps Center's students came from Oakland, I estimate blacks accounted for 25-33 percent of the student population. Since the island was part of San Francisco, a lot of students were gay or lesbian. And since Job Corps strictly prohibited fighting on center, and the island supposedly still has stationed military personnel, here was also an extreme rarity where one got to see Norteños and Sureños peacefully hanging out together, and even dating.
Hitler committed the genocide of millions of Jews, American settlers from Europe killed off countless natives, and then bought slaves from Africa, where they were abused and treated as less than human. This is a painful, ugly, and even bitter past, to be sure. But why does anyone have to hold onto it? We should know well enough today that all humans bleed the same color. Every ethnic group has its scholars, athletes, heros, criminals, etc. There is no "race" but the human race. I have been targeted occasionally by blacks who were antagonistic toward whites for something my ancestors may have done to theirs. I never did or said anything hateful to them. I was usually able to restore peace, but it took a lot of convincing to make them believe that I had absolutely nothing against them.
Barack Obama has been elected to serve as our nation's 44th president. He may not have as much experience as Hillary Clinton or John McCain, but I personally think he is more intelligent than either of them (and me). He has seen poverty, and can therefore relate to the lower classes. He is part black, and certainly not in the position to be biased against his own people. I believe he is sincere in his intention to bring this country out of recession, and has pushed everything aside to work on a well-defined plan, calling on some of the most accomplished experts in the country to advise him in economics, politics, foreign policy, and technology. He is an open-minded, humble man, and an icon of hope for this nation and even the rest of the world. Since his election, French leaders have stepped forward and expressed hope that this event would serve as an inspiration to their own people. We are all equal.
I am 37.5% Italian, 25% Mexican, 12.5% Ukrainian, 12.5% Irish, and 12.5% English. Without knowing me personally, can you tell me what is wrong with me? If your heritage is different from mine, do you think there is anything that I, as a stranger, should know is wrong with you? I am a person. And if you are able to read this text, then you are a person as well. Shall we be friends?
1 response
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
25 Nov 08
Hello santuccie. It is so bad to have racism in your area, which makes us not feel so happy in our life and work. Why not people live and work peacefully and harmoniously in the same area? I think that it needs to have some longer time for people to remove the bias against different peoples. It would be very nice if all the people are just like in one family, then no racism will be seen any more. Take care, friend.
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