Race is defined as a category of people labeled and treated as similar because of allegedly common biological traits, such as skin color, shape of eyes, texture of hair, etc. The definition of race does not touch upon the notion of equality. Why should it? For one's biological traits are not to determine power, status, or rights. They are simply surface features in which the eye observes. Pull away the accessory outer appearance and reveal the uniform anatomy of the human body. I wish the rest of the world could take a second to do just that. It is our failure to do so that has created such a hurtful and prolonging issue in America: Racism. As explained by Newman, "Opportunities for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have always been disturbed along racial and ethnic lines."
I am Caucasian and thus, exist within the majority race of America. I have not experienced much racism first hand, however, have been exposed to the serious and painful issue through my education and life at home. Growing up living in Minneapolis allowed me to familiarize myself with diversity. As goes for any race, those who vary in appearance from your immediate family can seem different, strange, or intriguing. It is those families that don't allow children to interact with the foreign seeming people where the issues begin. For parents, I find it key for them to break the 'barrier' promptly in order to let the child know that there is nothing that makes the two different other than appearance. The quicker one is able to interact with other races, the better the notion of equality may be spread and thus, happiness amongst us all. My parents had me at a Minneapolis public school grades K-5 with the exception of 3rd grade. Tuttle Elementary was a very diverse and artistically involved school that I loved dearly. In the class pictures from the years I attended, it would be difficult for one to state with confidence that I was part of any majority... for the division of races and ethnicities was so diverse. I was best friends with four girls: Carolene (French), Katarina (Caucasian), Jupreece (Mixed), and Nhung (Vietnamese). My very first crush was a boy named Jacub (Lebanese). My integration with this diverse group of kids opened my eyes at a young age to the heterogeneity of our country. Because my predetermined middle school and high school was in the city of St. Anthony, my parents decided to transfer me to the St. Anthony elementary school, Wilshire Park, for 3rd grade in hopes of increasing the likely hood of acceptance into the sister middle school. Wilshire worked in opposition to all that I had just gained from my experience at Tuttle. My new three best friends were Rachel, Jenny, and Erin... all of Caucasian descent. Wilshire, I am realizing now, displayed trends of racial transparency which is the tendency for the race of a society's majority to be so obvious, normative, and unremarkable that it becomes nearly invisible (Newman, 2012). No body within the tight-knit group of families seemed to have a problem with the lack of diversity at the elementary school, it is as if they had forgotten other races exist. The importance of a child's integration with those who are not always appearing so similar (with the exception of blonde or brunette hair), is one thing I had the advantage of. I didn't last but a year at Wilshire... The immense diversity at Tuttle was worth grasping an additional couple years of before a longer education at a unified race school.
Another aspect of my life in which I have experienced situations of racial inequality or diversification is through my relationship with my step father. My step father, Rob, is mixed (half Caucasian, half African American). Hearing his hardships growing up as a child is nothing short of disturbing and embarrassing for our country. Rob experienced the brutality of colorism: skin color prejudice within an ethnoracial group, often between light skinned and dark skinned blacks (Newman, 2012). It stuck with me when he explained once, "I was never white enough to be accepted by the whites, but never black enough to be accepted by the blacks." It is heart-wrenching to know that it is our own preconceptions and history of slavery that caused and still causes this pain amongst individuals today.
Growing up in a race-diverse school, and building relationships with those who have experienced the difficulty of racism first hand has opened my heart and ears to those who may be suffering. As the issue seems to weaken, it undeniably still exists.
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