Reflecting

What I have learned in this class will stay with me for the rest of my life and changed the way I look at the country. Although, I knew I would be learning new information I didn’t expect to take as much away from it as I have. I have always been taught to be open-minded and to be curious about other races, ethnicities, and cultures.

When I reached high school I asked my parents how they chose to live in New Rochelle. There were many factors that went into choosing where to live but something that stood out to me was that they wanted my brother and I to grow up in a diverse community. Both my parents had grown up in predominately White Jewish towns and wanted my brother and I to have a different experience. I have learned so much from growing up in New Rochelle and changed my outlook on life concerning oppression, racism and diversity. My high school encouraged learning about all the different cultures that are represented at our school and accepting everyone for who they are regardless of skin color. However, we never went into specifics and this class made me realized how everything is interconnected and contributes to oppression and privilege.

I have never thought of myself as being racists or feeling that I am more entitled to things because I am white but this class has made me rethink many actions I have taken or the way I view certain things. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was walking home from the library by myself very late at night when I was approaching a group of African American boys. I decided to cross the street because I was more comfortable not walking past anyone. As soon as I made it to the other side I thought, wait why exactly did I cross the street? Was it because they were African American, was it because they were boys, would I have done the same thing if it had been a different configuration of people. I came to the conclusion that regardless of who was standing on the corner I would have crossed the street because I am frightened easily when walking alone at night and feel safer when farther away from a group. But I was still worried that my action may have come across in the wrong way. I am more aware of actions I take that can come across in a negative way and want to change this.

Reading “What Can We Do” was a great capstone to the class. Now that we are more educated about these issues in America we need to be able to take what we learned and share and apply them. Some of the steps that Johnson suggested I found myself already partaking in which made me happy. For example I get very uncomfortable when people make derogatory jokes and always speak up about it. It was very helpful to see what other steps we can take to help our country reach equality, and I am most definitely going to try my hardest to implement them into my life. I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot.