Prejudice Essay, Research Paper

PREJUDICE

Are you prejudice? Yeah, that?s exactly what I thought, until I arrived here at Hampton. Prejudice is simply the act of pre-judging someone before you really get to know him or her. You should never judge a book by its cover. In most cases your first impression of someone is based upon appearance, and the first impression is the one that counts. Since my arrival at Hampton University, I?ve met many different people from not only the U.S., but all over the world. Every different area, or city, or country has its own local culture. They all dress different, they have their own slang, and they enjoy various foods. But after you scratch beneath the surface, you notice that everyone is fundamentally the same.

The first person I was able to observe was of course, my roommate. Justin is from Baltimore County, Maryland. My first impression was that we had absolutely nothing in common. I consider myself to be the typical North Carolina country boy. I don?t speak with correct grammar, my room is never clean and I don?t iron my clothes. Initially, I took him for a spoiled prep. He spoke with a faultless dialect. It was almost regal. It seemed, by the way he and his parents unpacked, that he was a completely organized, and proficient person. His clothes perfectly draped his closet. His desk was always ideally arranged. He struck me to be the exact opposite of myself. But as we began to talk and interact with each other, I learned that we were shockingly parallel. We?re the only two humans that enjoy Quaker Instant oatmeal. We share the same passion about music, females, and even life.

Because I smoke marijuana, it was inevitable for me to meet some other potheads. The first was ?E? from Long Island. From his appearance I took him to be a New York Rasta. His mop-like dreadlocks looked as though they had never been washed. He was cloaked in baggy urban clothing. But despite all of this he spoke like a ?California surfer dude?. This was so funny to me. It was like God had made a mistake and given him some white boy?s voice. He was the first guy besides my roommate that I considered a friend. Daily we regulated the cafeteria, and strutted the campus meeting girls. But the more we hung out together the more I realized he wasn?t the person I initially took him for.

Next we have Chare. She?s from Los Angeles, California. I met her through ?E?. By her clothing I figured her to be a rich girl from the valley, but of course I wrongly categorized her as well. She conversed with a confident, ghetto dialect. She never bit her tongue for anyone. This is where I was first exposed to west coast slang. Her speech was straight from Boyz in the Hood. I quickly became her ?homie? and we spent a lot of time ?kickin? it?. As I really got to know her, I learned how similar our lives really were. We both loved the same movies, and had interest in the same activities.

Eric is from Queens Bridge, New York. He stays next door to me. The second night I was here, I had to go and ask him and his roommate to turn down their music. They didn?t like this very much at all. So I guess we started of on the wrong foot. Eric has a smart mouth. I saw the way he talked to other guys in our hall, and frankly I didn?t like him very much. We didn?t speak if we saw each other around campus, so of course I didn?t consider us to be friends at all. The weekend of the first home football game my little brother came to visit me. I took him to the game because there wasn?t anything else to do. I gave him a ten-dollar bill to go and get something from the concession stand. He returned with tears in his eyes. He explained to me that someone had told him they would buy his food and bring it to him, but that he couldn?t find the guy. I went down to ground level to find this guy. The way my brother described him, he probably was a HU student. After about 5 minutes of searching I noticed a crowd beginning to form about 15 yards to my right. It was a fight. I went to make sure that it wasn?t anybody I knew or ran with. As it turned out, it was Eric and someone about twice his size. When I arrived back to dorm, I went to Eric?s room to see how bad the damage was. This is where the story gets interesting. Apparently Eric was seated behind me the entire time at the football game and I didn?t know it. He was talking to girl at the concession stand and had noticed my little brother talking to another student. He assumed that I knew the guy and didn?t think anything else of it until he saw my brother franticly explaining to me what had happened. On his way out he saw this guy and approached him, the guy said something smart, and Eric popped him. From that moment on Eric has been my best friend here.

Maybe I just don?t posses the ability to accurately analyze a person by his or her appearance. Now that I?ve been here a while it has become easier to recognize where an individual is from by their appearance. I?ve learned to translate their local tongue to ordinary English. But that is as deep as I can go on first impression. By observing other students you can learn many things. Not only about others, but I feel as though I?ve learned more about myself in the first month here than my entire past existence up to that point. It is my personal opinion that this is what really makes the college experience so valuable.