I am going to bring you a different perspective. Perhaps, a perspective that's new. Perhaps, you've never heard of something like this. People assume that white people are never victims of racial discrimination. It's an unhealthy assumption that white people don't experience racism. However, they do. Or at least, I have. Let me just say that I will never pretend to know what it is like to be Hispanic, Asian or African-American, but I can share my experience as a fellow human. So, take a walk in my shoes.
I spent the first half of my life in a small town in central California. It was a farming town with a large population of farm workers and ranchers. So, the school I attended was mainly Hispanic. My family was one of few Caucasian families. We were the minority. What?! White people were the minority? In America? It's just something that no one talks about.
My brothers and I were bullied for years. I would come home and tell my mom words in Spanish that kids continually called me. My mom would have to look them up, but she never told me what they meant. I only figured it out on my own or through my friends. For a 6-year-old, I learned a slew of terms 6-year-olds shouldn't know. I remember my brother getting into fights. I remember riding the bus home every day and having to ignore the taunting of the other kids.
In my innocence, it was just mean kids. It didn't really weigh in on me that they were being racist or discriminatory. I was young and innocent. I knew they called me "white girl" instead of my actual name. I knew they picked on my brothers. But I just took it. They were bullies.
Looking back now, I see that I was the minority. And if you are the minority, no matter the color of your skin or the background of your culture, you will be discriminated against. It's just that now, the only racism that matters is that toward African Americans and Hispanics. However, I protest that discrimination shouldn't be ignored no matter who is being discriminated against. We all deserve respect, and no one's pain should be more valuable than another's. A bully is a bully no matter what his motive. Racism is racism no matter who is the victim or the culprit. It should never be dismissed.
It's pretty funny that when we decided to move to Idaho, my mom told me that we were in for a culture shock due to the Caucasian population at that time. To be honest, it was a little weird to me. It was pleasant because the fact that I was white was no longer an issue. Kids didn't look at me with disgust. They called me by my name rather than "white girl." I was just a person. So, my young mind that had been trained to believe that every other skin color naturally hated on other skin colors was pleasantly surprised when we all got along and never even spoke of physical differences. Instead of being that black kid or that white kid, we were just kids. We were classmates. We were friends. That's how it should be. Instead of identifying people by their culture or skin color, how about we identify people by their personalities? That's what really matters anyway.
