We would like to think that we live in a society that provides equality for all however we are far from this. As discussed in class, we are moving towards modern racism. We discuss are preferences and bias to the people in our group.  We do not publicly verbalize our prejudice however our actions speak louder than words. We naturally categories people by our own experiences and what we were taught.  These stereotypes tend to follow us until they can be proven wrong by a life experience or interaction. 

 

I grew up in Houston but moved to a small Texas town my junior of high school. The move was definitely a cultural shock. I lived there for four years and experienced slow racial progress being made through out the town. Blacks lived on the east side of town, Mexicans lived on the South side while the Whites and wealth individuals lived on the North side. My family built their house in a new developed neighborhood on the North side of town. The neighbors surrounding us made it hard

 for us to finalize our building plans because they were unhappy of the addition of another red house on the street. There were a total of 2 red houses before building our house. My dad had to go before a committee to argue why he should be able to pick what color he wanted his house to be. This was obviously not about the house’s color but about skin color. Being that his skin was dark, the neighbors were making it difficult for him to establish his house in the predominantly white neighborhood.  The stereotype that blacks were loud and ghetto made the move uncomfortable for our family. In the end, we were able to use the red brick of our choice and successfully established ourselves in the neighborhood. The thought that a black family would bring down the neighborhood is absurd. I feel they based their prejudice on their small town mentality.  After four years, I feel that the community around us saw that we were just another average American family, not the gangster family they had expected. Drugs and the music industry seem to come to mind when a wealth black person is able to live in a privileged neighbor. Hopefully future generations in the town will be more accepting with multicultural neighbors by reducing common stereotypes.