Being a young girl of white descent, I never payed close attention to the idea of racism. I didn’t grow up in a home where people were judged by the color of their skin, but as I grew up and met new people, I realized racism is still a very prevalent issue. In our class, we’ve had many debates of about minority groups, treatment of people of color, and the idea of racism. This topic has had the largest impact on me and how I now view the world.

One of my professors once asked: “How am I affected by racism?”. This made me think about the hidden aspects of racism that most people don’t notice daily. All my life, I had thought that African Americans were hated because of their skin color. Environmental racism was now all I saw. The neighborhood I live in is majority white people with a few African Americans, a few Indians, and a few Hispanics. I believe they are living there because my neighborhood is gated and they are the “good” people of their race. Now, as I drive down the street, I realize that minorities and people of color do live in their own environments and it is usually in places referred to as the “ghetto,” where crime rates are higher, the streets are filthy, and the houses are overpopulated. Most people think this is because of the race of the people living there. However, I believe these areas were like that before, but when the wealthier white people pushed the underprivileged colored people out, they had nowhere else to go but the “slums.” The only areas left happened to be the poor, rundown areas because the white people feel inferior and want the best they can have.

In class, when we had a debate of whether an employee of color would get treated the same as a white employee, I said yes. This is because I believe that society can function just by simple interactions and everyone performing their function. This creates a structure and allows society to function (Structural Functional Theorem). However, some people stop others from performing their function because of the color of their skin. I think that is awful but it has truly changed the way I think and view society. I also thought that everything was equal and everyone got equal opportunities with equal chances. Being in class and listening to other students share their experiences with racism or their witness of racism is unbelievable. For example, Quan said that he worked in a place that was mostly Hispanics. One day an African American applied for a job but his application was never even looked at. This story is just sad because it shows how someone thinks about a certain race. Everyone in the United States has the right to be treated fairly and equally, but we never see it. So many people out in the world treat people poorly because of their race.

Listening to how many people in our class have experienced or witnessed racism is crazy, because I never expected it to be something that still happened today. Knowing now that this world isn’t as nice and just as I thought it was, I am going to fight for those who can’t and treat everyone better. No one deserves to not have full access to their rights. Racism has really opened my eyes to how the world really is and hearing it during class has deepened my understand that we are discriminating them and it needs to end!