Eth_125_Final

Race and Your Community Ethics 125 Race and Your Community I am a 23 year old Caucasian female. I was born in Woonsocket Rhode Island, a city about 1000 miles from where I live today. I was raised in a small town called Burrillville in the state of Rhode Island. My mother was born and raised in a town about 30 minutes away called Bellingham in the state of Massachusetts. My father was born and raised in a town about 10 minutes away called North Smithfield. Burrillville, the town that I grew up in was comprised of men, women, and children from all across the wealth spectrum. There were low income, middle, and upper class families. My mother did not raise me to see the differences of my peers and members of the community negatively, so when I look back I do not see that my peers were that different from myself. The only real difference was that the children with parents who had more money wore more expensive clothes. Up until high school only two of my class mates were African American and only one of my classmates was Asian. During high school I had four Asian American class mates and three African American. Hispanic Americans were not seen in Burrillville until a few years later. When I was in Middle School I played Soccer for the Pink Panthers, an all girl recreational team. The team was made of girls between 12 and 14 years old. I was 12 at the time so some of the girls were older than me. We played against recreational teams from all across Rhode Island. Whenever we played against teams from Providence or Cranston we cringed. It always felt like the girls on those teams would do anything to get you out of the game without causing their team to get penalties. Those girls were mean. Now, to actually say it I feel almost wrong but the girls on those teams were African American and Hispanic American. I was brought up to understand that everyone is different and no matter how someone else is different his or her differences are a good thing. I tend to get along with everyone and that seems to help. I do not have an issue being uncomfortable around people that are different from myself either. I believe that it is our differences that make each other so much more interesting. If everyone was the same life would be so boring. As one would expect leaders within my community treated everyone the same. I never noticed if people were treated any differently, and if people were treated differently it was not done within the public eye. Burrillville is a very small town and everyone knows everyone else's business, so if some form of mistreatment or special treatment was seen the whole town would know about it. Like every community there were some bad seeds that treated others differently. During my high school years more and more families from the city were moving into Burrillville. The students that moved from the city treated many lower class students like second class citizens, while many of the wealthier students treated the kids from the city like they were garbage. Growing up I did not notice if the town or state had written works aside from text books that centered around people like me. Here in Georgia where I live now there is a magazine that goes out once a month and a newspaper that comes around once a week that focuses on communities and people within the communities. The local news stations and newspapers both back then and now represent people like me every day, which is in one way refreshing but in another way sad. No one likes to see others go through hardships especially during the tough economical times that we are all facing, but at the same time no one likes to think that he or she is the only person experiencing difficulties in his or her everyday life. When I was younger I didn't interact with the leaders within the community all that much. As an adult living in Georgia I am noticing that the men and women in leadership positions in the community are the same men and women that have the largest houses and most expensive cars. I am considered part of the lower class. I live in a trailer about 15 minutes from town, surrounded by cow fields. I do not have a car of my own and I am on food stamps to help support my family because I cannot find a job. I am the complete opposite of the men and women who run the town that I live in. I also do not see that any of the leaders within the community are of a minority. It is important that minority group interests are represented in the community, but not having a leader from a minority hinders the ability of the leaders to properly represent minority interests. In order for leaders to properly run the community, even the country, many inequities need to be addressed. If I could resolve any inequities I would make sure that everyone in the community received the proper funding from the government, state, and other welfare organizations that specialize in specific groups. Money would be distributed fairly. The men and women who needed more funding would receive more while other that did not need the extra funding would receive less. In my happy world college students would not have to take out students loans and would instead receive full scholarships and full financial aid. After I receive my bachelor's degree I plan to play a role an important role in Society. I am going to college to become a teacher. I want to teach in a "low income" middle or high school. During my first two years of teaching I will be continuing my education to receive my Masters degree in Education specializing in English and Language Arts. I am in school now because I want to educate students. Not only educate them about the basic subjects, but about life. When I was in Middle School I had a teacher that really reached me when no one else could. It is because of her and what she brought to my life that made me decide that I wanted to pass that gift on to another student. Teaching students about life and differences and that everyone is different but that differences are good is important knowledge. Without that knowledge the United States would not be what it is today. Without that knowledge American men and women would still own slaves. The civil rights movement would not have occurred. The men and women moving to this country would be sent right back and forced to suffer back in their mundane lives in their homeland.