I am not originally from this small farming town of 3,000, but I have adapted to the way of life here. Everyone knows everyone; people are cordial to each other, but frequently talk about others behind their backs. Often times the comments are very hurtful and prejudice, and typically it is due to the lack of knowledge on the subject at hand. I often have a hard time understanding these actions, since I didn’t grow up in this small town. I am not afraid of the unknown like my husband is and even the community I currently live. He graduated from high school in the same small town we currently live in; his class had 35 people in it. He is very nervous of the unknown, when we make the 30-minute trip into Columbia; where I am from, he carries a pistol with him. He is very overly cautious, in a place where I am so comfortable. He calls me a fool and that I am naïve but I don’t think of it that way, I grew up in that town, I know so much about it and where things are. I feel that he is the prime example of someone who belongs to a particular ethnic group and how he views individuals is reflected how he treats each other’s and this influence extends in the home, workplace and the society as a whole. He is not intentionally rude or hateful to anyone but his prejudices are visible through his fear of the unknown and rather than becoming informed he chooses to become …show more content…
This larger community is known for being very diverse but separated in the same aspect. With a major university located at the heart of the city several ethnic groups meet on a common ground, Asian Americans, African Americans, Caucasians, and many more. Growing up in this city, I witnessed the separation. The areas of town that you just don’t go to after certain hours, the rich neighborhoods, the drug filled neighborhoods, the neighborhoods that wanted to be rich. Located in the center of some of these neighborhoods were three of the cities high schools, two major high schools, one located in the “rich neighborhood”, one located on the edge of the “want to be rich” and the “don’t go there neighborhood” and a school that the bad kids went, which was located in the “drug filled neighborhood”. I had around 700 graduating students in my high school class, in the “want to be rich” and the “don’t go there neighborhood”. We all had our clicks, but I like to think I had friends in all of them. My high school was made up of a very diverse group; we had all walks of life. The second high school was located in the stereotyped “rich neighborhood”. This school seemed to allow their students to get away with everything and seemed to be made of primarily white students. The third high school was located just a few blocks south from where my high school was. It had a very small