PER.6 EXPERIENCES OF DIVERSITY

There have been many times in my life, when I've experinced moments of diversity. From walking in to a class room to being the one everyone has their eyes on. But since I live in East La , its kind of hard to experince diversity. Because of how the majority of the people are from latino decent. Some incidents I can sort of say are experiences of racism too. But the one incident that stands out most in my life is one day when I was in Azuza, CA, It was what seemed to be normal day. I had done all of the usual, the daily morning routine. It must have been aroud 2:00 in the after noon when I was walking around the shopping center. I began to notice people began to stare at me like as if I was some kind of alien. I was dressed what seemed to me to be normal, but I guess for otheres' a bit out of place. which was completely what I felt like, out of place. The way people were speaking to each othere was different, it was still english but the way they spoke it was different. Most of these people were caucasion. Next thing you know a car pulls up next to me and four guys all step out and begin telling me all sorts of things. Cussing at me and telling a bunch of hatefull things, racism first hand. I didnt know what to do, when they left I begun to just try and peice together what had just happened. What was their reasons for doing that. I began to think of what they believed in, what might have made them that way. The only excuse i could come up with was their culture and beliefs, that they were completely different to mine. Other times I experienced diversity is when i go to resturants that are of completely different cultures. Also when visiting the Grand Canyon. This was the first time I ever left california. It was the first time I would get to see how other people from another region lived. Right there the Majority of the people were white, thought of not being around a bunch of mexicans and not being able to speak in spanish, just made everything feel weird.