Color Blind

In todays society it is more common for my generation to be more accepting of other races and ethnicities. However, it has not always been this way and society will probably never be 100% accepting. Sometimes people might not fully understand what race means. It is considered a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.

A real life example someone close to me has experienced in regards to not being accepted is my mother. In the late 70’s my mother, who is Hispanic, worked in a factory as a very young woman just to get by and to provide for herself while attending school. Working in the factory was never easy for her because she was Hispanic and of course a woman. My mother was a hard worker and could do any job they asked her to, but the men would still continue to say racial slurs and downgrade her because of her gender and race. Hearing my mother share these stories while I was growing up made me appreciate how good I had it. That is until I fell in love.

While being away at college I have been exposed to so many different races and have met so many people with different ethnicities. Being exposed to so many cultures has been both eye opening and a great experience for cultural awareness. In the process of attending school I have been in a relationship with an amazing young man who is African American. We have been together for over two years now and since the beginning of our relationship I noticed the looks we received from some people for the simplest of reasons-holding hands in public. The people who we typically receive stares from are generally middle-aged adults. However I always try to keep in mind that when those individuals were growing up it was not typical to see an interracial couple together in public. But it still makes me question how people can not learn to be okay with a relationship as times are constantly changing.

Now another big issues people all over the world face is discrimination. People tend to sometimes get confused on what discrimination and stereotypes are. I feel a lot of the time, people do not even realize they are stereotyping. Discrimination is an unequal treatment of various categories of people.  Cases of discrimination are happening all over the world on a daily basis, just turn on the news.  The perfect example I can give is the case involving Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. This case had sparked such an uproar in people all over the world. Trayvon Martin was a young African American teenager who was shot to death by a Hispanic neighborhood watchman. Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman, was charged with murder but was not found guilty which started to cause protest in the streets of whether or not racial discrimination truly played a part in Trayvons murder. Nevertheless no matter where you go or what year it is race, ethnicity and discrimination will always be an issue. 
            

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discrimination