Social Issues In Brentwood

The battle my neighborhood in Brentwood faces is frightening, specifically for a minority society. Being that I come from various cities and states, I’ve noticed a shift from how a community comes together to support one another into a society that’s mainly about individualism. Accordingly, Brentwood has been known for their reputation of gang violence, drugs, and crimes including homicide. Just recently, four teenage boys were brutally manslaughter in the front and back of their vehicle by MS13 gang members. Prior to the incident, two young girls from Brentwood High School was murdered by the same gang. For this reason, a big issue we face in Brentwood is the security of us young kids and teenagers and safety of our beings.
Coming into Brentwood,

I had a strongly believed that I wouldn’t enjoy my experience because of its bad reputation, but after coming to Brentwood I never felt more empowered, especially about myself. Unfortunately, some kids didn’t have the same positive outcome I had, many of them had either join a gang, influenced by drugs, commit crimes, or simply dropped out. Seeing how my community comes various ethnic backgrounds and beliefs, I can easily point out the difference between what's morally right and wrong. In many cases, I have witnessed many of my closest friends turn into drug addicts or given up on school, but ultimately not caring. Therefore, I’ve realized I how easily my life could’ve ended out for the worse. Strongly enough, I take that into account because I had a very tough childhood and life, still, I remind myself how much gratitude I have and therefore I allow myself to be the best self I can be.
As a minority living in a community with other minorities, I’ve noticed how hard it could be to develop in a society that is dominated by whites. Minorities are constantly viewed as stereotypes rather than human-beings, so it has been difficult to become find our way. No doubt, us minorities segregate ourselves due to the fact that we are afraid that we’ll become damaged by the rest of society. Recently, I have attended a film camp based in a neighborhood with a high economic class. Even though the tuition was less than a thousand dollars, a lot of minority families wouldn’t be able to afford that. At the time, I was fortunate enough to receive financial support from family and my job savings As expected, the class was entirely filled with white people including staff members. At this point, I felt a discomfort because I’m rarely in an environment where I was the only Hispanic/African American female. Consequently, I came to find out that they all were, in fact, privileged where they come from a very strong economic background. Although this made me uncomfortable in the beginning, I realized that my ethnic or economic background doesn’t define my ability to perform or how I will strive in society.