Racism

RACISM

In my childhood days I can remember when the other kids out would pick on my cousins during recess at school. They would be picked on since they were different from the rest of us. You see they are of the Mexican decent, and have a bit of color to their skin. That's the only thing that I see different about them but I guess that the kids see things different and had to make fun of them just for having the so called "wrong" colored skin. I can often recall the days after school when I would see one my cousins crying because of the way that they were treated that day at school. While in my childhood I would always want to be the one who would go out and try to get even with the kids that treated them so wrongly, but now that I have grown I can see that that was not the right way to go about things, but it always got under my skin that someone would treat someone else just because of the color of their skin. Also there was a boy by the name of Mike Volgelsong, and he is also of the Mexican decent, but the kids always called him "The Orange Mexican", due to the fact that his skin looked as though it had a bit of orange in it, hence forth the name. Even more amazing is the fact that he is still referred to this name today.

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My cousins came into this world via my aunt and uncle. My uncle Denis Morhart, who is my mothers brother, made a trip to Mexico, and there he found and fell in love with my aunt Sara "Rangel" Morhart. They both moved together here in Hicksville Oh, and made a home for themselves. I talked with my aunt today on this Easter Sunday, and she said that it was a lot of getting used too. Getting used to the way of life here and getting a hold of the English language. She was also not excepted when she first got here. She says it took people a bit of time to get used to being around her, and even longer for some to even talk to her. My aunt also participates in Cinco de Mayo, which is a celebration of the Mexicans victory over the French army in the Battle of Puebla and it is celebrated on the fifth of May. The one thing that I have seen my aunt only do once since I have known her is the Mexican Hat Dance. She loves it here and she would not change it for the world, if she had not met my uncle she would have never had the chance to come to be with us, and learn our ways and the opportunity to show us some of her cultures ways and beliefs.

Messages that I have received in the years of my life are those of a nation in which we have three different views on another culture around the one we are so used to. On one hand you have the side where the people are open to new things such as different cultures, because they would like to learn stuff from them, or have them teach them or tell them what their cultures do that would be interesting or maybe something that they might not have already known about them. Then there is the other side in which the people here could careless what kind of culture is around them, or what they do. Then

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you have the last group in which they would rather different people other than their own race be put out of this world or moved back to where they came from. These three groups have shaped how I feel today about another person "different" from me being around me. Particularly I am in the first group where I would like to be friends with the person and learn some new things from them. Also I could help that person adapt to the new surroundings he or she might be facing and then it might give them a good perspective about my culture. The messages that I have received in my childhood have shaped the way I feel about these so-called "different"