Race Tensions

The town I grew up in is Show Low, Arizona. Surrounding Show Low are many small neighboring towns. These towns all come together to form the White Mountains. Most of the citizens of my community are of a Caucasian background. There are also some different minority groups that come from different background that also live there. The majority of the non-Caucasian residents are of Native Americans decent and Mexican decent. There are Native Americans because of the Apache Reservation that lies to the East, and the Mexicans have immigrated because of the vast amount of construction jobs. The mixture of these different groups has caused many different problems with in the community of the White Mountains. There lies within the community old roots of prejudice and discrimination towards people of different cultures. Not only does prejudice still run high, but has also been a hindrance to the progress of the community, which has not just affected the progress of the community, but most likely the traditions will be passed down of prejudice and discrimination to the children of Show Low and the rest of the White Mountains.

One major organization within the town the town of Show Low that you could probably see discrimination or prejudice each day is in school systems. They have been largely affected by the prejudice of some students and parents inside of the White Mountains. There was a heated debate my junior year of High School that was all started by a discriminating chant that some kids from the school were yelling during a basketball game against a neighboring town also part of the White Mountains. Because of this chant Show Low High School was put on an athletic probation. Mark Shaffer, a writer for the Arizona Republic wrote an article entitled, “Angry members of the White Mountain Apache Tribal Council are scheduled to meet with Show Low school officials on March fifth to discuss a chant directed toward tribal members and a suspected assault at a pair of high school basketball games.” He continued to mention, “More than two dozen students from Show Low High School stood and yelled, ‘We pay taxes, yes we do. We pay taxes, how about you?’ during a timeout at a home game on the fourth of February against Alchesay High School, of Whiteriver.”( Shaffer, 2003) Not only was that chant discriminating, but it also caused bad feelings between neighboring cities.