Reflective Essay On Race And Ethnicity

Growing up Wyomissing, it is an all white community with little to no minorities this differs from being at Eastern University because Eastern is fairly diverse community. Eastern is located on the outside of Philadelphia but in the center of the main line. The main line is known for the white, wealthy, and snobby families. This authors community is more like the main line than it is like the city of Philadelphia. The writer of this paper knows different ethnicities but does not have a lot of friends outside her own race. Working in retail which is a very diverse environment a person will interact will people of every race and ethnicity which is how this writer interacted with those of different colors. Within Wyomissing it was hard to interact

My family has always taught me that even though we come from a background where opportunities are given, we still need to work hard to earn them. People always judged that school was easy, or buying clothes was no problem but my family was humble about what we had and we needed to work for the achievements we wanted. If social class was more of a sensitive topic like race and ethnicity, people would not judge as often based on what a person wore or how they were educated. Education is a major problem within social class in terms of the opportunities kids get, whether it’s going to college, or attending a private high school. Within the book Diversity, Oppression, and Change it says “there is a persisting gap between the upper and lower classes’ access to a college education” (Marsiglia, Kulis 2009 56). This quote is unsettling because even if a person is from a lower class, everyone should get the opportunity to go to college or get an education of some sort. Achieving opportunities is never easy, but knowing that a person’s social class can affect someone else’s future is what is the most devastating because that person did not truly work for their chance to