Racism Among Us | Teen Ink

Racism Among Us

October 29, 2013
By swagpresident BRONZE, Washington DC, Other
swagpresident BRONZE, Washington DC, Other
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Racism is something that still lingers among the entire world. Even in America there is racism. Many think that racism has been diminished in the country, but I know ,first hand, it hasn’t. I’m Indian. Both my parents were born and raised in India. My siblings and I are the first generation to be born in America. Over my life I have felt some racism, and I’m pretty sure my brother has, too. Even my parents have felt some racism since they came to America. In India it’s different everybody is the same skin tone, so you can’t be racist. America is different, it’s know as the melting pot. There are so many people with different cultures and beliefs and different skin colors. With all these people in one place there has got to be some racism here and there. It’s not like people aren’t gonna judge someone because they look different. It’s not human nature.

Even going back in history white people made black people their slaves because they thought that they were inferior than them. The white people put up laws against allowing black to vote and go to school with the white people. This went all the way up to the 1960s until a brave man stood up against racism. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader against racism, he fought against it without violence. He showed people that there was no difference between blacks or whites. I remember one day in elementary school a boy came up to me. He asked me one simple question that even till today still strikes me. He asked me why I was dark skinned. He genuinely didn’t know why I was darker than everybody else. To be truthful I didn’t know why I was brown either. I just stared at him blankly and said I don’t know.

Another experience I had with racism was when I was visiting my cousins in Alabama. We were all taking a walk and it was pretty late at night, couple drunk guys came out of a bar. We just walked right past them without giving them a thought. Apparently they found that annoying and started yelling at us. They were saying minor words but then one word that I cannot repeat stopped my dad and uncle. Both of them turned around and walked toward the drunk guys. My dad started yelling immediately at them. My uncle followed up after about five to ten minutes of name calling they finally made the drunk guys walk away. My uncle and dad walked back towards us looking extremely pissed off but can you blame them? We didn’t run into anymore problems in the rest of our trip.

One last experience that I had with racism was when we were first moving to this are. My parents wanted to put us in a school called Tower Hill. It was a private school and you had to take a test to get in. I never took the test but my older brother, Abu, did. He was just starting kindergarten and he did fine in the test. For some reason though the school failed him, and my parents were furious. My mom was telling me a little bit ago on the drive to our dentist that humanity is very racist. She talked about how this was just a little feeling of this. She rambled on saying that Tower Hill was ungrateful, stupid, stuck up, and just a little racist.

What I’m trying to point out to you is how racism is still here. It still lingers around us, maybe not as much, but it is surely here. Some people might not feel as much racism towards themselves as other people but believe it isn’t fun. Racism is no joke and there are no benefits of making fun of someone because of their race. Maybe now you will watch what you say because everywhere around the world there is racism among us.



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