Prejudice and Racism at Our School

Prejudice and Racism at Our School

Racism...the belief that a particular race is superior to others; discrimination or prejudice based on race. Racism has been around for a long time and its effects have been seen a lot in the past few centuries: during the 1800s and earlier - in slavery, the Civil War, and slaves being freed; and then recently, during the 1900s - in the Civil Rights Movement. Everyone in the United States is supposed to have equal rights and not be discriminated against because of race, but sadly, that is not always what happens. Racism shouldn’t be around anymore, but it is, even in WCCHS. Sometimes it’s in the form of racist comments or racial slurs, and other times it’s in the form of "who hangs out with whom." Something needs to be done about this. I think that if there were more integration in school-related activities, then students of different races would learn to accept each other the way they are, and racism wouldn’t be an issue at WCCHS.

As was stated, even though there shouldn’t be racism at WCCHS, there is. Although once in a while teachers might be involved if someone says something racist against them, most of the racism is between students. Although I don’t really see a whole lot of it and what I do see isn’t major, it is still there. Generally, Hispanics and non-Hispanics get along okay at WCCHS; a lot of the racism expressed in these two groups is just little things, such as racial slurs or mean comments about someone just because they are or aren’t Hispanic.

To get a broader view on racism at WCCHS and why it occurs, I interviewed Karen Miller, a freshman of Polish and German descent; Gabe Antonio, a freshman of Mexican descent who knows both English and Spanish; and Mr. Sayner, a World Geography/Global Studies teacher of western European descent. Karen, Gabe, and Mr. Sayner all agreed on their definitions of racism. Gabe said that racism means “people saying bad stuff about other races and cultures,” Karen said that it means that someone doesn’t like another person just because of their race - they are prejudiced, and Mr. Sayner said it means “people judging someone else based on physical characteristics like skin color.” In all three definitions you see that people are basing their opinions of others on outward characteristics rather than finding out for themselves what they are like.