Aleatra Nading SOC 320 Janet Holter 12/3/11 Personal Reflection Growing up my parents rarely made racial slurs

or said anything that was derogative towards a certain minority or ethnic group. I remember my mom telling us kids that the black people we saw were just as human as us white people and they just had different skin color. I never thought twice about it when I was younger; I just accepted what my mom told me. My mom used to have a beauty salon in Norwalk, which is where my grandparents live. There has been an increasingly large amount of Hispanic people moving into Norwalk. My mom had a few different Hispanic clients and a couple of them she has known for over 8 years or so. She always treated them like any other client and ended up learning more Spanish. My grandparents on the other hand always seem to make racial comments and they dont see anything wrong with it. It seems to have gotten worse since Norwalk continues to grow with the Hispanic population. Some of my uncles are just is bad and discriminate and stereotype against African Americans as well. My grandma will sometimes refer to a kid as that little black boy and my mom always tells her that he has a name too, and shouldnt refer to him as that. I have noticed both my grandma and grandpa making such comments and I think its terrible, but when they were growing up there wasnt nothing wrong with such comments. My views related to race and diversity hasnt necessarily changed over time, but I would say I have a better understanding of my beliefs. I was raised with the understanding that it doesnt matter what we wear, or what color our skin is, we are all the same. This course has

definitely opened my eyes to see the whole picture. I think that yes we are all the same because we are all humans, but we are different and sometimes it is a good thing to be different. This course has taught me many differences between a variety of cultures and minority groups. For instance, the Hmong society is rich in culture and they have years and years of traditions they practice. I used to think I wasnt discriminating towards a minority group, but I realized that I have been because I use stereotypes. I never used to catch myself stereotyping against a group but through the course of this semester I have been very self-conscious of it. It is so easy to be stereotypical and half the time I dont even know the person to make that sort of judgment. There were a couple activities in this class that has definitely helped me with understanding race and diversity. The first activity that I think everyone who attends Viterbo University should have to do is Bafa-Bafa. This was a fun activity but also taught us how hard it is to communicate and interact with a different culture. Secondly, the videos and documentaries that we watched in this class were more helpful than just reading material out of the text. The videos showed us the struggles that some families face and we could hear how they were feeling. The videos seemed more personal than just reading about it. The experience that helped me the most was my field placement experience for education. This was a great opportunity to work with two different minority groups and also to have experience in what I am going to do someday. I think today there are still issues with diversity. We can see this in the work force and employment. Some minority groups get paid less based on race and some dont even get hired because of their race. This is unacceptable and something needs to be done. I think one way to reduce this from happening is to not have a place on an application to fill out your race. This would eliminate discrimination on an application and maybe the employer would call an

applicant that they normal wouldnt. In class we had a group discussion about what the government could do to help reduce discrimination with Mexicans and crossing the border. I think we could reduce illegal immigrants if we made the process of becoming a U.S. citizen easier. The test is so difficult that not many people pass and the process takes a very long time. I remember looking at some of the questions on the citizens test and I didnt even know half of them. In terms of reducing diversity on a community level I think the Hmong Association that we visited is going in the right direction. That building not only offered a place to the Hmong community but also to everyone else. I think that is a great way to educate people about different diversity groups and for them to learn about their history. Lastly, the basis for a belief starts as a child, so parents have to remember what they say around their children. Parents could be a big part in helping to reduce prejudices by teaching their children and acting it out. Children learn a lot from their peers, especially their parents, so if parents have a good understanding and arent discriminatory there is a good chance their children wont be either.