Race and Your Community - Research Paper Example

Race and Your Community Introduction Race is one of the distinct qualities which set us apart from each other as human beings. It is often obvious and apparent as in our skin color and our cultural practices, or it may be obscure qualities as seen in our diluted blood lines. Nevertheless, the communities where we usually live are the places where we see our race having any sort of impact. The impact may be cultural, social, or even political. It affects how people relate to each other – how they mingle (or not mingle) or communicate with each other. This paper shall provide an autobiographical analysis of the influences of my race in relation to my community. It shall present my account of how human interactions in my community have been racialized. This analysis is being undertaken in the hope of coming up with a thorough and analytical assessment of the race in relation to the community, in the hope of clearly establishing the trends and patterns of human behavior. Discussion First and foremost, I am of Romanian, African-American, and Indian descent. As a child, our family moved around a lot and because of this, I was exposed to and I grew up in a mixed community. When, I joined the service, I was still in a mixed community – living and being exposed to Caucasians, African-Americans, Asians, Europeans, and other races. At present, I am still in a mixed community, being exposed to different races and cultural groups. Some of the members of my community look like me. My features are predominantly African-American and some of the members of my community look the way I do. My coloring is not as dark as those who are of pure African-American descent and so, I am slightly different from them in this regard. About 35 percent of my community is of African-American descent. About forty percent of the community is Caucasian and I do not look like them at all because of my stronger African-American features. The leaders within my community are sometimes ambivalent to people like me. Most of the leaders are Caucasians (whites) and they seem to treat people who look like me with suspicion. One time, I complained with the leaders about a Caucasian neighbor who liked to play loud music at most times of the night. They spoke to the neighbor, but they did not do so with firm authority. After a few days of quiet, my neighbor resumed his loud music. In order to avoid any trouble, I just tried my best to ignore the loud antics of my neighbor. I saw however how differently I was treated by the leaders when it was my neighbor’s turn to complain when I got a dog which sometimes barked loudly at night. When my neighbor complained about the noise, the leaders came to my house and reprimanded me harshly and I was told that if I did not shut my dog up, they would file a complaint against me. I saw this same treatment with other minority members of my community. When the minority groups like the Asians complained about a white member of our community, the leaders did not take their complaints seriously. But when the Caucasians complained about something the minority members did, a harsh reprimand and threat of court charges were always forwarded against the minority community members. The other members of my community also treat us more or less the same as our leaders. It is encouraging to note however that not all members of the community are as racially insensitive as our leaders. Most of them do try their best to treat us fairly and give as much importance to our concerns. But I noticed that when infractions in the community are noted and if there is a slightest indication that an African-American or a member of the minority community is responsible for it, they are sometimes quick to turn on us. They are quick to make rash judgments about us. I also noticed that some of the members of the community, especially those belonging to the exclusive clubs, are reluctant to allow membership to the minority members of the community. In my conversation with a member of a local community organization, I was informed that although their organization was open to all people of all races, they did not exactly encourage them to join. Some minority members were sometimes not included in the decision-making in the organization. And they were not also included in many of the major activities in the organization. The texts or work manuals in my community contain information by or about people like me. These texts and work manuals are mostly in English and since I do understand English, they are easily comprehensible to me. Some of the texts however are not translated in other languages and the unilingual minorities sometimes do not understand these texts or manuals. The texts also contain information about the African-American people, the Indians, and the Romanians. They are not as comprehensive as the texts and discussions on the White Americans, but they are reasonably detailed enough to portray my people’s culture and history. Most of these texts or work manuals are authored by White Americans and the perspective of their research is mostly based on their understanding of my culture. The local media does not represent people like me. The news anchors in the local news are mostly of White American descent and they often feature stories which do not represent or discuss the diversity of our community. The news features often show the news which depicts how African-Americans are involved in gangs or other petty crimes. But a group of African-American teens representing the community in a talent search in the city (and winning the contest) did not even merit a mention in the evening news. There is an African-American in the news team however, he is part of the sports or weather news team and we would only see them in short segments. I later found out from one of our community members that the African-American sports anchor was highly qualified to be a news anchor, but he was bypassed in favor of the Caucasian anchors. The similarities between me and the community leaders is that we all seek to establish a peaceful community. They seek order in the community by ensuring that the members of the community abide by the rules. I also seek to fulfill these rules. I always make it a point to note what the rules of the community are and to follow these rules in order to avoid conflicts and chaos in the community. We are different from each other in the sense that they have a narrow view of minorities and of African-Americans. In my conversation with a community leader, I was able to glean that he believed everything he read and heard on the news about minority groups and African-Americans. And since most of the news featured how African-Americans were rampantly involved in crimes, and that some minority groups were in the country illegally, his knowledge about me and about the minorities was very much skewed. Considering these thought processes on the part of the community leaders and the community in general, I do not believe that minority group interests are represented within my community. I believe that although equal opportunities are there for all people regardless of their race, the utilization of these opportunities by the minorities are hampered by the prejudices and preconceived notions about them. These prejudiced notions prevent the minority groups from being more active and being more vigilant in their rights and opportunities. Given the opportunity to resolve these inequities in my community, I would meet with some of the members of my community – especially the African-Americans and the minorities and encourage them to participate in the community activities. By participating in these activities, more opportunities for interaction can be gained. Through these interactions, the majority can hopefully be enlightened about the culture, practices and the identity of the minorities. I would also make it a point to attend community meetings in order to monitor political decisions and to take an interest in the politics of the community. By showing my interest, I can be vigilant about the rights and interests of the minority. Conclusion I belong to the minority race in our community which is dominated by the White Americans. The members of the community are accepting of the minorities, however, they do not give us as much privileges and opportunities as they do their fellow whites. We are not well represented in our community, nor are we encouraged to express our preferences to the members of the community. The preconceived notions that the members of the community have about the minorities dominate their thoughts and it prevents them from seeing past the color of our skin and past our physical features. It is possible to change their preconceived notion by increasing the community interaction with them and by becoming more involved in the community, thereby ensuring that opportunities for abuse are eliminated. Read More