Racism And Prejudice Essay, Research Paper

In my eight grade at Earl warren, I witnessed numerous amounts of prejudice and

racism. Not saying names about certain specific people but this said designated

person is a female. I?ve known this girl since about the 2nd or 3rd grade so I

know about her school life well enough to be able to tell this story. To my

knowledge, I feel she grew up, at school, with a pleasant life as a young girl.

She wasn?t really known to be one of the prettiest girls, but I guess she

could be considered a little sweet heart. As the years progressed, we already

hit the fourth grade at Skyline Elementary School. School started off as a

new-sprung and fresh start for her little life. Even though there was more to

come in her new days, there was probably more that she would encounter that she

would?ve ever expected. It kills me to still think about this, but older

people in the 6th grade had already been introduced to smoking and drinking.

This once pleasant girl had a rendezvous with her new coming future. As known to

this day adolescent minds should not come to face with such horrors. She started

to hang out with the older more mature kids a mature kids, how had better

experience with the subject, which had caused her young, innocent mind to be

penetrated beyond its boundaries to a new step in her life. While, the months

and years proceeded by in a normal fashion her way of life confronted a huge

U-turn. For instance, she started to dress in a gothic manner of wearing all

dark and gloomy colors as if you changed into a totally different person. This

came to conclude with major prejudices from our fellow classmates. I know how

people thought in 5th and 6th grade and to people in that degree of age that was

thought to be really weird. Kids just thought that because she wore constant

black and glum colors that she was scary and dumb. I don?t know what anyone

else thinks, but saying someone is scary, mean, weird, and just not cool or

normal just because the way the dress I think that leans toward being prejudice.

These peculiar thoughts toward her continued throughout her elementary school

years. She finally hit the 7th grade and once again she became involved with the

older students, but for some reason know that she was hanging out with older

people she was considered to be cool and popular. She stopped dressing the way

she had before for a reason UN apparent to she and myself just came to be one of

the most popular girls in our school. Other girls even started to act the way as

the ways as she did. Through out the year she wasn?t known to be one of the

nicest girls she was actually kind of mean towards certain people. Finally the

big 8th grade hit and since there were no older people to hang out with she

finally decided to hang with people in her own grade. Through this period of

time the drug abuse did not stop and neither did the drinking prospect. That

year I was in her 8th grade English with her, designated in the seat right

across from her. From undergoing her personal aspect I learned a surplus of

knowledge of how she felt about different races of people. I don?t know how

she got this prejudice feeling toward this race of people, but she had a thing

against Asians. She would call them chinks and other derogatory names and her

reply to this consumption is that they should go back to their own countries.

Seriously I really thought of that thought to be an appalling opinion coming

from no reason once so ever. I think that she has gone through a bad life of

prejudges and hate towards her and she back fired on it by using it as a

scapegoat to blame all of her problems and past problems on this certain race.

Or this could be just because she is really prejudiced and racist, or it could

have been problems at home. But what I don?t get, is why after her elementary

school years of prejudicism toward her and hatred and commenting behind her

back. That she would come back later in her life and judge a race from the way

the look and act and just the way they are for hardly a good reason. When I

think of this it astonishes me. I picked this person because she has been

through a lot of things in her life including prejudice. Things like this happen

everyday but some times you don?t realize how much it happens Intel you

witness it. Other acts of that sort are racism. When I was in elementary school

one of the thought to be most popular guys in our school was African American.

He got in a fight with another kid, who was Caucasian) and since the African

American gut was raging on him so much and talking bad things to him he called

him ?ni**er?. I don?t know if it came out of racism or just a reaction,

but it was horrific reaction that happened in return of that. One more

elementary school memory is how I remember when all the kids during lunch would

go play basketball, everyone would want to join in on the little theme of that

day. The guys at our school were very serious about playing basketball and if

someone looked like they were not good enough to be able to play well in a good

game they would not let that person participate. For example, they would

especially not the girls play and me to, because I wasn?t considered to be one

of the ?cooler kids?. So the girls, some of my friends and I would go play

our own game.