Growing up on Long Island is the definition of a suburban lifestyle. A lot of the houses look the same. People dress the same, have the same types of cars and do the same things that others do on the weekends. We have memberships to privately owned gyms and walk our Yorkshire Terriers around the cul-de-sac we reside on. Even throughout high school, I was not exposed often to people who looked different from me. With a graduating class of a little under 550 students, I could basically count on my hands how many of those students were part of a minority group.
Because of all this, many people that I know from home think that it is OK to make “light” racist jokes. And even through the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the television shows we love, we can see that even if it is not blatant, there are still many people that think it is acceptable to treat a minority, or someone different from themselves, with less dignity than they would give to someone more similar to them.
Why do we think that this is an OK practice? Personally, I think it is rooted from our surroundings. It just makes sense– people who are exposed to little variety are ignorant of the diverse kinds of people there are in the world.
Take a look around Fairfield. If you look at the numbers, yes, we have people of minorities, but the majority of the enrolled students are Caucasian. Some maybe were exposed to more diverse people, maybe some that were never exposed to someone of color. But the problem is that some people think it is OK to take their ignorant ways to college with them, and use racial slurs and jokes on campus.
The shameful acts of racism have taken place over in Claver Hall just in the past week. Many people have heard that someone carved racist remarks into the sign for the resident hall. We have had floor meetings and seminars about it all over campus, all asking the same question– how do we stop students from doing things like this, so the affected students do not get hurt?
And I don’t have an answer for that. What I do know that society truly shapes us. Obviously not everyone can be exposed to absolutely every culture there is in the world. But some throw around racial terms and jokes not knowing that they can truly hurt someone, and make them ashamed of their background.
Americans claimed to have taken big steps in to making all citizens equal. Although we have come some way, there is still more progress to be made. Essentially, we’re all the same, so why are we trying to find ways to make some kinds of people better or worse than others?
– Sent from my BlackBerry
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