As the only Indian and darker skinned student in my class, going to school affected me emotionally. My classmates harassed me because of my darker skin. I thought the harassment would stop after elementary school, yet it only amplified. The September 11th attacks on America turned everyone with my skin tone into enemies. My close friends decreased their interaction with me while others threatened me. On the news, I would hear of attacks and murders of fellow Indians. Our house was egged, our cars were scratched, reminding us that at any point, the harm could be direct. Our family lived in constant fear of physical harm and we suffered emotional harm. Our family members became depressed, decreasing the children’s morale and spirit. This is when I first noticed that the surrounding community, using my broader definition, impacts the overall health of its occupants. I do not remember why, but our visits to the family doctor became more frequent. My father and uncle were both prescribed medication for high blood pressure. My cousins and I could not sleep at night, affecting us academically and making us tired in school. My family and I, deeply connected to Hinduism and Indian culture, felt we could not openly practice important aspects of our lives. We could not hold regular festivals without being tormented by others in the community. This continued for many years until moving to a new upper-middle…
If you are Hispanic, you may have heard comments such as, “Wow, you speak so well… You are not like them… You are really smart… OR You are different and they will really like you.” You might even be asked repeatedly where you are from if your first answer is a city or state in the U.S. The take away messages from these simple statements are clear for many of us. You are not acting like those Hispanics who don’t quite behave like the “norm” – which essentially is referring to White Anglo-American. After experiencing a microaggression, you might wonder, “Were are they giving me a compliment or telling me that people from my culture are less than” or “Were they really curious about where I live or were they telling me that I don’t belong – that…
Words are powerful. They can harmless or harmful at the same time. People have to use words wisely. As an Asian, I’ve never experience people calls me “FOB” in China until I moved to America when I was 13 years old. I remembered that the first time I walked into the school; I was very nervous and excited at that time. As I walked past the classroom’s window, I heard people laughing and giggling at me while I was waving my hand at them. The school principal had led me into a classroom. I still remember that the classroom was as quiet as a graveyard. When I was sitting in…
Andy, I know I’m always reminded that whenever I go to a new branch I needed to get to know the team first, and observe everything and make a mental note of what’s working and what’s not before embarking on new challenges. I do believe in the phrase, though, ‘if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.’ It sounds like the new GM needed to fit in first before presenting her ‘wonderful’ plan. In addition, she lacked the important characteristics of ‘openness, candor, informality, and closure.’ It seemed as though, it was either her way or the highway.…
The color of my skin, texture of my curls, and sound of my accent does not solely define who I am. I define myself as Mariela De Loa, a Catholic, Mexican-American young woman. My adolescence consisted of me growing up in a middle class household with my mother, father, and three siblings. From a young age my parents embeded religious morals into my norms and values. I was taught to put God above all and treat those around me with respect. My parents also enforced the Spanish language while I was growing up. By the time I entered kindergarten, Spanish was my dominant language, so I couldn’t speak English as well. It was difficult for me to get along with other kids because none of them looked like me or spoke the same language as me. Essentially,…
As I entered homeroom, I noticed I was the only latina present and that there was only one other person of color. At first this did not bug me, but as the week went by, I realized that we were the only two non-white students in the whole middle school. This made me feel very out of place, because I had never been the only Latina at a school, so I did anything I could to fit in. I was willing to let people make me their own personal dictionary, for inappropriate language, or to translate their readings. As a person of color, I was always taught to put others before me or else I would be seen as rude and uneducated, so I complied. Throughout my life, I have witnessed that many upper class citizens take their privilege for granted; they do not…
Outsiders are a very common theme in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Many characters show traits of an outsider. John is one character who fits the bill. He is the ultimate outsider. Other outsiders in the book are Bernard and Linda. All of these characters have traits that make it difficult for them to “fit in” to the society of the New World. They don’t fit in a conforming society. These three characters are perfect examples of outsiders in Brave New World.…
When I was 13, I had to go through a transition that tested my character tremendously. Let’s rewind to my seventh grade year, which was four years ago. Talk was going around the little private school I attended in Ardmore, Oklahoma that my family was moving away. I had not heard anything about this, I had no idea what anyone was talking about, and I was definitely not happy with being the subject of everyone’s gossip. I heard stories about where and why my family was moving that you would not believe. I recall one girl who said that my family of five was moving to Australia because my dad was a Mexican immigrant who was running from the government. If you knew anything about me, you would know that story was completely bologna; my dad was not Mexican, he was the whitest white boy you could ever lay eyes upon, we were not running from the government, and we were definitely not moving to Australia. Eventually, I found out the rumors of us moving were true. We were moving to Durant, Oklahoma at the end of my seventh grade year.…
I’ve been raised Peruvian, as a child every day I’d hear our music playing in the house, we’d eat our food, and if the tv was on we’d watch our channel. But for eight hours a day, five days a week I’d have to leave my culture, not by plane but by bus, not hours away but only a few minutes. School was where I learned about the world, different people from different cultures all from places I had heard about, and though I appreciated the new cultures I was being exposed to, I was always embarrassed when nobody knew mine. Its wasn’t until middle school that I could say I was Peruvian without requiring some sort of explanation afterwards. My classmates were under the impression that there were four races: white, black, asian, and mexican. Even today I hear Mexican in the place of Cuban, Venezuelan, or any other latin country. If someone wants to get on my nerves the mexican stereotypes are the first to come out.…
Who is an outsider or an outcast? Do you know how an outsider or an outcast feels? Have you ever been to a different country, or got taunted on how you dress, or ever been rejected from a particular group? Is the experience of being an outsider universal? There are a lot of questions that come up when you think about being an outsider. An outsider or an outcast is a person goes against the values of other people. A loner for example. A loner is rejected by their peers. They are isolated because they are strange or different than the others. To understand the concept of this, the memoir called “By Any Other Name” from Gifts of Passage, is an excellent example.…
When I was fifteen years old years old, my mom told me that we were going to go to America and asked me if I wanted to go or not. America was always an interesting and strange place to me. Because my family always told me how great America is, they said that I can have a whole new life there. The conversation about America did make me feel willing to go. And I started to think about the life afterward. America is a country full of opportunity and it can provide a better living quality and better education. However, if I go to America, I would leave my family, friends, delicious food and culture behind and go to a strange place and become an outsider to learn things all over again. After long time of thinking, I decided to…
Insiders tend to make it difficult for outsiders to come by pointing out their lack of formal education on the subject. They also make it much tougher for them to get their work out there for others to read and when they do, its quickly shut down. Most insiders only support each and will not typically anyone new. They do this out of fear because the outsiders might destroy their system. For example, by encouraging that research endorses a certain medication than everyone wins. The company that makes the medication will fund the research and they are able to publish them discovers. Then, the company can make money by selling their medicine that now has “research”, that has been swayed, endorsing the product. Society needs other people besides…
When I first came to the Margarita Muñiz Academy in the 9th grade, it was hard adjusting to a school where 94% of the students were Hispanic and with literally less than 6% of the school being black. I would walk down the halls and be called racial slurs because I was black. I could feel the tension between the two races and it also made me feel angry that I came from a family that’s racially diverse. Having a Black American mom and a Jamaican dad, and coming from a Middle school that was…
every society has its own rules or norms which govern the way it expects ist members to conform…
In school, I was never treated the same, maybe it was because I was half white in a predominately black school, or maybe it was because I was a little quirky and weird as a kid; in effect, early on I was casted out due to “differences”.…