Racism an Examination of Riverside,

Racism

An Examination of Riverside, California and its Treatment of Various Cultures and Races

While I live in California, which is known throughout the nation for its progressive, innovative attitudes, the fact remains that racism still exists, even in the golden state.

A grew up in Riverside, California in a family of five. I have two brothers, a mother and a father. My parents were both teachers and it was important to them that we grow up in a diversified environment. When I was a small child I remember my mother trying to explain racism to us. Our family is white and my best friend was black. I remember another child refusing to play with me because my best friend was black. I went home in tears and asked my mother why it had happened. She said it was ignorance and eventually if we all worked together we would be able to rid the world of racism.

In our family we were taught to judge people based on their character, morals and strengths, and not notice their color, religion or culture other than to embrace the learning experience that it would provide for us, however, in my community others did not always feel the way we did about it.

In our community we have an almost equal division between whites and Hispanics with about eight percent of the remaining residents being African-American (http://www.helloriverside.com/Census.Cfm).

The members of the community who look like me are not all of the same culture. Many people who initially appear to be white are actually of Middle Eastern or Eastern European descent. About 38% of the city's population is Hispanic and they look different than I do in that they are primarily darker skinned with dark hair and dark eyes.

The leaders within the Riverside community are also mixed when it comes to race, culture and other aspects of life. The leaders of the community of Riverside for the most part treat Whites, Hispanics and African-Americans about the same, though I will say that it has been my observation that African-Americans do not get quite the same amount of respect as the Hispanics and the Whites received. As I got older I realized that part of this has to do with the very demographic make up of the city and where most of the voters are. Along the way the city endured some issues of racism in the police department (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_25_95/ai_54757750).

It was evident to many who lived in Riverside that the African-American status of a resident often garnered an attitude of disrespect from many city leaders, whereas Whites were treated well and Hispanics were treated almost as well as Whites.

When it comes to how residents of the community treat each other I have mixed feelings. While I would like to report that everyone treats everyone else equally it is not always the case. In some cases, such as the group I grew up in and socialize with currently. In my immediate family and friend circle, we treated each person the same regardless of their race or gender or culture. However, sometimes I was treated differently by minority races when I was in different situations. I remember one time joining a local civic organization with the intention of meeting new friends and performing some public service. The group was primarily made up of Hispanic residents with a handful of White people. I left the club before long because the Hispanic women in the club were very cliquish and purposely made a point of ignoring the White women in the club.

It was the first time in my life that I realized racism can happen in any culture and is not exclusive to the Caucasian population.

The textbooks that I have used in school have for the most part overrepresented Caucasians and have only recently begun to include minorities in their discussions and pictures.

This can also be said for the media except when it comes to crimes.

I have always noticed that the media provides lots of racism for its viewers, cloaked in the public's right to know.

This was much more obvious when I was younger. I noticed at one point in life that the media would always describe suspects, whether or not in custody, as Black or Hispanic but when speaking of White suspects they simply called them suspects.

I know now that such practices feed into a racist society willing to believe that there are more African-American and Hispanics committing crimes than white people. Our hearing has been told that over and over again with the media referring to suspect race only when it is not a White person who is wanted.

The people who are in leadership roles in my community have several things in common with me and others like me. The first thing they have in common is the desire to rid the area of racism. To that end they encourage minorities to apply for positions within the city. In addition they support programs that assist minority equalization including funding opportunities and other programs that are aimed at this cause.

One of the more significant differences between me and some of the city leaders is the obvious interest groups that they support. While I do understand the importance of appeasing interest groups in a general sense, it has become obvious in the case of some local politicians that they have to appease the groups even when it goes against the common good for the entire city.

One instance that comes to mind is the time a Riverside Human Resource Director was accused in an open meeting of racism. He was accused of showing favoritism to white employees when it came to promotions and salary increases (County official accused of racism during board meeting (http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/04/14/news/californian/22_43_114_13_04.txt).