Race and Your Community
Andre Walton
ETH 125
Heather Bickley
Axia College During my 33 years on this earth I’ve lived in many different communities that have there own success and challenges. The challenges mainly presented themselves as racial inequality or stereotyping. This has been evident as a resident of both communities in New York and Florida. The ways to bridge the racial and cultural gaps are through patience, education and understanding of each others backgrounds and core values. I’m from the island of Barbados where race, color or creed was not an issue; regardless of your geographic location on the island we all ate the same foods, enjoyed the same things and spoke the same language. Those in my neighborhood looked like me but in many different shades, even Caucasians were dark because of the 365 days of sun that lathered the island. Two of my closest friend were white but I didn’t realize this until my first two weeks in America. In Barbados there is no separation of races within the community and there is absolute unity as we all consider ourselves Barbadians. When I moved to New York City in 1983 my community was very different form what I was accustom too. There was a mix of different races and cultures and the neighborhoods were segregated by cultures. For example, I lived in a community that had neighborhoods named after the ethnicity of the group. Little Italy, China Town, Little Russia, etc. In many cases if you were not apart of this culture you were not welcome in these neighborhoods. The tension caused by this type of interaction caused many young kids to battle against each other orally and physically over turf. I was transported from a place of civil and racial harmony to a place charged by racial tension and violence. This did not make any sense to me because when you dissect the issues it boiled downed to ignorance. Each