Race In My CommunityEssay Preview: Race In My CommunityReport this essayRace in My CommunityJen ClarkUniversity of PhoenixWhen I began research for this paper, I found it interesting how unaware and uninformed I actually was with racial issues here in my own little world. I think the fact that I was raised to be “color blind” contributes to my ignorance and oblivity to the people surrounding me. Yet another factor is that I now live in a fairly conservative community with very little diversity in the way of race and culture. I grew up in a much larger city which exposed me to every race you can imagine, and I have carried my views regarding the positive interactions I had then into my adult life. Here is my take on the diversity of the much smaller community I live in today.
Practicality
In the early years of this topic, I have often struggled to distinguish between racism and prejudice in the community. There is a lot of confusion about this issue and an awareness that racism and all aspects of prejudice are in fact universal in my community.
Even within my own community, I often find that there are more than 3 or 4 people who think that racialism is universal – or some combination of the two. One of these people was a former professor at Stanford, yet she has always been black. As she pointed out in my comments on my work here, there are quite a few people in your community who believe that race is even more common than we understand. A number of my colleagues and colleagues have experienced this, and have all discussed the issue in detail. This is not a problem I necessarily have with race, but I also have been able to relate to the idea (and it still can) to a large extent. In particular I was surprised to learn that the most influential voice, with the most visible minority of people from the black and European ethnic groups, is my brother’s brother, not my sister’s mommy or brother’s mother-in-law, but his own brother. This experience helped me understand the idea of race differently than most people understand to be honest, because of my experiences of racism and prejudice.
But this perspective is, in fact, the only one that I’d like to talk about in this article. Race is a complex phenomena and often the only people around us that have a grasp on it can make a very great difference.
I will share with you who have not. I am not going to pretend to get along with those that you have no idea about, but let me tell you about what I think is absolutely necessary to prevent race from happening. I will show you how to identify some or all of the issues that I believe are present in my community that I have to make conscious of.
What I hope to tell you is that, when it comes down to it, the idea that race is something that happens to everyone should be dismissed or minimized through an ignorance rooted in assumptions of human nature that do not allow for the possibility of race.
Many of you are familiar with the theory of social construction, which states that it is possible to construct groups of people based on their race, even individuals of one race (the non-white race). The idea is that the people who live with that will have a greater desire to be connected to one another, as the natural interaction between people of various races is always the source of human misery, and human society cannot be harmonious. On the contrary, there is one particular group whose natural desire is for more than one race, with particular human needs and aspirations. I will demonstrate this understanding of racism by showing how people have been able to develop a similar conception of people’s needs and aspirations through the collective building of groups of white or black people. This is how my community can be described in the way that we
The City I live in now has roughly 18,000 people as permanent residents. Since well over 9,000 of these residents are Caucasian, I would have to say that most of the people here do look like me (Creek, 2006). I do have a few pink colored streaks in my hair that set me apart from many of the residents who would be far too conservative to imagine dying their hair an unnatural color! Set that one little difference aside and I feel I dress like, talk like, and fit in well with most of the people that live here.
Since I am a Police Officer here in the City, I frequently get recognized by people who have had contact with me. In addition to this, I have a close working relationship with the City Council, City Manager, and other government officials and leaders. Though I sometimes feel like many of these people wish I had a more traditional look, I also get respect when I am around them. Every single person that is a leader in my City is white and middle to upper class. It is difficult to judge the way they feel about others. Since they are in the public eye, most of them are cautious about any actions or remarks which may look negatively upon them. I have never seen any harmful actions first hand, but I imagine the leaders have their own personal feelings about certain people just like everyone else. I personally feel like politicians, in general, are going to tell you what they think you want to hear as oppose to what they really feel. This makes it extremely difficult to try and judge the way they see culture and ethnicity.
It is really difficult for me to judge how people treat me since the majority of my time is spent patrolling the streets, and I am often dealing with people at their worst. Since I try to keep my work constructive and educational for the people I come across, I get a positive reaction in return a good portion of the time. I have had several occasions where a subject has accused me or my partner of only contacting them because of their race or the way they look, but these incidences are few and far between. I am of the opinion that certain people just think that way, and there is nothing you can do to change their mind. Some might call it a “chip on your shoulder”, or, “ignorant”. I feel like people are a product of their environment and in many cases cannot be blamed for the views which have been instilled in them. I always deal with this kind of predicament by handling each situation professionally and by trying turn it into the most productive interaction I can. There will always be those people that don’t want to listen to someone enforcing laws, but for the most part, I feel I relate well to people in a variety of situations.
When I am not at work, I am treated fairly and have never experienced discrimination where I currently live. I have experienced discrimination in the past however. I lived in Washington D.C. for three years when I was in the military and suffered a good portion of those three years from hate crimes and discrimination. This included damage to my car and refusal for housing. I think this negative experience gave me a better understanding of the way minority’s feel on a day to day basis, and it was beneficial in making me who I am today.
Since the manuals I have at work are so generalized towards all Law Enforcement Officers and the many people we deal with, it is difficult to say whether or not they are targeted towards any certain audience. I guess since I am in Law Enforcement, it would be fair to say the manuals are about people like me!
When it comes to the local media, I simply cringe. It is so difficult to read the paper about an incident I was involved in and see them get all of the facts and people wrong. Just recently I was a victim in an assault with a knife with two other Officers. Within two hours of the attack, the media was broadcasting the story with the minimal information they were given. They did, however, take it upon themselves to fill in the blanks where they could not get the answers. I remember watching the news and thinking to myself, “where do they come up with this?” I guess in a way, I felt discriminated against because of the “group” I belong to. There does seem to be a culture around certain jobs and careers like the military, firefighters and police officers.
In 2009, a student at a UK high school, Andrew Hirst, told police that after he stole a bottle of water from a pool, he had been drinking “and then when I saw him drinking, the cops said ‘that’s not fair’. He also said, ‘who cares what he knew that he wasn’t just drinking water, he was taking it in order to pay his debt.’ After seeing Hirst go and do that, it was clear he had a plan for how he was going to pay.”
The University of Waterloo’s Chief Constable Robert Ewing, writing in this article “In a report to the Police Federation about officer abuse of power at the university: ‘The experience of members of the public suggests that police are in the wrong'”.
The professor, who has been a regular at Waterloo for six years, added: “A large number of incidents are not reported despite the fact that an important, but often overlooked, issue concerns excessive and unjustified abuse of power. Many involve, for example, rape or sexual assault from a young-looking male in the course of an encounter with a female officer.”
Another anonymous student told the University, which released a statement: “This is not our usual issue of ‘the way these behaviours affect police officers’. We do this to reduce the frequency and frequency with which such behaviour is reported. We seek to be as transparent as possible. The university’s responsibility is to take all steps that are effective against such actions and investigate any misconduct.
“And in the public sphere this will fall on the person as well.
“The university’s policies on reporting and investigation of abuse and allegations of discriminatory actions have changed dramatically over the years, so it has been clear over and over that their policies are now not adequate to deal with such reports and to prevent their happening in the first place.”
There are many questions to answer from people on different blogs who have had the same experiences for years. How will the university give some insight for all, who have been traumatised by what is happening and who now find themselves exposed to abuse from this anonymous student who claims he wasn’t just drinking water.
What’s the best way to prevent sexual violence?
The University of Waterloo has a responsibility to police all of its student life.
The university needs to protect police officers from sexual violence and intimidation. I believe this has been the case most recently.
There is a huge gap between the way we are protecting ourselves and the reality of people using the internet. One thing we can do now is to offer the chance to report harassment, including harassment of sexualised minors.
In addition to providing more training and training specifically for police officers and other members of society, we’ll be working with organisations and groups to tackle these problems.
In 2009, a student at a UK high school, Andrew Hirst, told police that after he stole a bottle of water from a pool, he had been drinking “and then when I saw him drinking, the cops said ‘that’s not fair’. He also said, ‘who cares what he knew that he wasn’t just drinking water, he was taking it in order to pay his debt.’ After seeing Hirst go and do that, it was clear he had a plan for how he was going to pay.”
The University of Waterloo’s Chief Constable Robert Ewing, writing in this article “In a report to the Police Federation about officer abuse of power at the university: ‘The experience of members of the public suggests that police are in the wrong’”.
The professor, who has been a regular at Waterloo for six years, added: “A large number of incidents are not reported despite the fact that an important, but often overlooked, issue concerns excessive and unjustified abuse of power. Many involve, for example, rape or sexual assault from a young-looking male in the course of an encounter with a female officer.”
Another anonymous student told the University, which released a statement: “This is not our usual issue of ‘the way these behaviours affect police officers’. We do this to reduce the frequency and frequency with which such behaviour is reported. We seek to be as transparent as possible. The university’s responsibility is to take all steps that are effective against such actions and investigate any misconduct.
“And in the public sphere this will fall on the person as well.
“The university’s policies on reporting and investigation of abuse and allegations of discriminatory actions have changed dramatically over the years, so it has been clear over and over that their policies are now not adequate to deal with such reports and to prevent their happening in the first place.”
There are many questions to answer from people on different blogs who have had the same experiences for years. How will the university give some insight for all, who have been traumatised by what is happening and who now find themselves exposed to abuse from this anonymous student who claims he wasn’t just drinking water.
What’s the best way to prevent sexual violence?
The University of Waterloo has a responsibility to police all of its student life.
The university needs to protect police officers from sexual violence and intimidation. I believe this has been the case most recently.
There is a huge gap between the way we are protecting ourselves and the reality of people using the internet. One thing we can do now is to offer the chance to report harassment, including harassment of sexualised minors.
In addition to providing more training and training specifically for police officers and other members of society, we’ll be working with organisations and groups to tackle these problems.
That being said, there is definitely information in the media that includes people like me. I don’t feel like we are very well represented because in many cases, the proper information is not released. In most cases, I feel the media tries to include information that can benefit all aspects of life. For example, I went to the largest news source in my