Becoming Aware of Ethnicity
By Michael Wimmer
EDI 550/551 Psychology of Adolescent Students
School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
June 11, 2009
It is hard for me to pinpoint an exact moment that I became aware of different ethnicities growing up, because I never remember being naive about this reality. For as long as I can remember, I was around people of all cultures. My father has two best friends from the time he was an adolescent, one of which is Chinese and the other Spanish, the latter being my Godfather. Also, being involved in athletics from a young age, I was always surrounded by children of different ethnicities, to the point that anything else would seem strange. However, when I moved to a neighborhood in which a majority of the adolescents were Caucasian, I realized that this was more of an issue for people than I could understand.
Throughout high school, I realized exactly what racism was. Although I always understood that it existed, it really was not an issue around me when I was younger. However, moving to neighborhood in which there is a lot of ignorance, I realized how sad our society can actually be. A prime example of this comes from when I first came back from Purchase College. When I told one of my high school teammates that at school I lived with my teammates, the first question dealt with how I could possibly live with people of other ethnicities. I remember being shocked and appalled, as I never had this person pegged to have such an issue with other ethnicities, and in all honesty our friendship suffered from his ignorant behavior.
Some of my best friends are of ethnic descent which differs from mine. I cannot imagine not having them in my life, and really am puzzled as to how this becomes an issue for so many people. To me, people are people. People are not defined by the color of their skin or the country which their ancestors come from. I consider myself to be an open person in this regard, and feel that it comes from growing up in the household that I did. While many people would call this a tolerant view, I just call it normal.
Long Island University, C. W. Post
June 11, 2009
It is hard for me to pinpoint an exact moment that I became aware of different ethnicities growing up, because I never remember being naive about this reality. For as long as I can remember, I was around people of all cultures. My father has two best friends from the time he was an adolescent, one of which is Chinese and the other Spanish, the latter being my Godfather. Also, being involved in athletics from a young age, I was always surrounded by children of different ethnicities, to the point that anything else would seem strange. However, when I moved to a neighborhood in which a majority of the adolescents were Caucasian, I realized that this was more of an issue for people than I could understand.
Throughout high school, I realized exactly what racism was. Although I always understood that it existed, it really was not an issue around me when I was younger. However, moving to neighborhood in which there is a lot of ignorance, I realized how sad our society can actually be. A prime example of this comes from when I first came back from Purchase College. When I told one of my high school teammates that at school I lived with my teammates, the first question dealt with how I could possibly live with people of other ethnicities. I remember being shocked and appalled, as I never had this person pegged to have such an issue with other ethnicities, and in all honesty our friendship suffered from his ignorant behavior.
Some of my best friends are of ethnic descent which differs from mine. I cannot imagine not having them in my life, and really am puzzled as to how this becomes an issue for so many people. To me, people are people. People are not defined by the color of their skin or the country which their ancestors come from. I consider myself to be an open person in this regard, and feel that it comes from growing up in the household that I did. While many people would call this a tolerant view, I just call it normal.
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