Donnie L. Spafford

ETH 125 Week 9 Final Assignment

04/10/11

Race and My Community

The Pros and Cons of Everything

I live in a very small town in Western Wisconsin, by the name of Grantsburg it is a very close knit community where everyone seems to know everyone or related to someone who knows their neighbors. My wife and I just purchased a home in this small rural town, and we are still getting to know everyone and how the town really seems to function as far as, how community members get along and mingle with each other. But I personally feel that there are many people in my community whom look a lot alike one another. I say this because we do not have many people who are not Caucasian. I also think that many of the people in my community come from the same or similar ethnic backgrounds. There for we all have similar facial characteristics as well as often times the same or similar hair and eye colors.

If I were to give a best effort guess, I would say that 85 to 90 percent of my local community is of the Caucasian race and the other 10 to 15 percent are of another race, whether it be Asian, African American, Chinese, Japanese, or Mexican. If you cannot tell I was not kidding when I said that I live in a very rural area which is also close knit and everyone knows everyone. There are very few people of different races or ethnic backgrounds that reside in my community or for that matter even in my state. I would personally have to say that the leaders in my community seem to treat everyone in our community the same people who look like themselves. I also do not see any decisions being based on the ethnic background or color of a community member’s skin.

I think that this is somewhat common in less rural areas, however the community where I live is very rural and fairly small compared too many others in my state. I do however know that in some areas of my state, many judgments seem to be based off of the offender’s skin color or race. Maybe this is just a common stereotype that is made or assumed, by me and I am totally wrong. To fully answer whether or not my texts or work manuals information written by people like me or about people like me is fairly easy to answer, because often times we the employees or group members have input as to what is in them.

I think that this makes a lot of these types of materials easier to understand and break done in the brain because the people reading them and trying to learn from them are the ones who had input as to how they were written and designed. I also think more times than not we influence how something is written or where it is put into the article at hand. I think that the local media has a way of representing people like me and my community members in many different ways. Some of these ways may not give us the best reputation or make us a model citizen or group member.

Take for instance the way that they portray a violent crime against a person of a different race or religion. This would make us out to be very racist or anti religious, and possibly even violent towards people who do not look like us or are not of the same religion as we are in our everyday lives. I however would have to say that this is not always the case in this type of situation either sometimes they can represent us in just the opposite way. I think that this is often a misconception that is all too common amongst many news and media sources as well.

I feel there are many similarities and differences at the same time when it comes to leaders in my community, as opposed to me and others like me. What I mean by this is that often times the leaders in my community come from similar backgrounds and situations as my community members and my own. I think that this makes them a lot like me and others in my community, thus helping them to better understand where we are coming from in our responses to some of their decisions they make. Sometimes we may get disgusted with them and upset, but then we take a look back at how we reacted to a similar scenario or situation we were faced with in the past.

Some of the ways that my community leaders and I seem to differ is that, I tend to be a more laid back type of person, and sort of go with the flow so to speak. I know that many of my community members seem to be very strict and stuck, to the rules and regulations and have to do things 110% percent by the books no matter what the outcome may be for other community members involved. I personally think that this is not always the best solution or way to go about things or certain situations. I think that if these people could sometimes take the same approach there would be a lot less stress in some of their given scenarios or situations at hand.

I know for a fact that all too often these leaders seem to think for themselves and also do what it is that is going to benefit themselves the best, before taking into account what or how a decision may affect the other parties involved. This is neither wrong nor right in my personal opinion. I know for a fact that many of my community members would strongly agree with my last statement. This is because we all seem to have the same or very similar opinions on this topic and many others like it that have similar situations presented.

I think that if I could change any inequities in my community I would start with the racial profiling or religious profiling even, if you believe in this type of profiling. I think that this is more common than most people even seem to know in my community and area of residence. I know that all too often at my place of employment this seems to take place especially for the fact that it is Native American owned and operated. I think that a lot of the non Native Americans seem to become more disgusted and upset with the Native Americans because they feel that there is favoritism that takes place when this is not the case at all.

I know for a fact that I am whiter than white can be and many of my bosses and supervisors are as well. We try not judge anyone by the color of their skin or the color of their hair or eyes. I think that in order to judge someone and fit them into a specific category or profile you first must get to truly know who they are and what they like or believe for that matter. I also feel that all too often many people at my place of employment are quick to jump to conclusions and just assume they are right without doing any research or further investigating into the situation or problem.

Maybe I am wrong but I think that this could be considered an inequity in my work place. I am sure there are many other ways to resolve this problem but, for me this is the best possible way to do this in this case. The other inequity that comes to my mind is the fact that all too many times people are judged on how much money they tend to spend at a certain table game or machine for that matter. This is not right by any means at all.

I feel that it is the personal business of the person gambling at the casino to know and no one else needs to do so. But people still try to judge or profile people by this means. I think that people just need to mind their own business and keep thoughts like this to themselves’ and not make them publicly known or a public matter of any sort at all.