Race and Your Community

Race and Your Community

Amanda Patterson

March 31, 2012

Josephine Ellsworth

Race and Your Community

Fork Union Virginia is my current community; I have lived here for one year and four

months. The members of my community look very much like me especially in terms of race. The

Caucasian population in Fluvanna County if 80.7% which I am considered white in my

community since my father, who is Irish American, was born and raised in this county. Then

there is the fact that 54% of the residents that live here are female. (County of Fluvanna) The

community is not very diverse in race or culture, as our population is 80.7% white, 15.3%

African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.6% Asian American and 3% Hispanic or Latino.

However even though our community is not very diverse I think that the leadership is well

represented. Our sheriff R.L.Washington is African American and our high school Principal

James Barlow is African American as well as his assistant principal Margo Bruce. We may not

all look exactly the same but I live in a very family oriented community that has placed a high

priority on educating and motivating our children to be the absolute best that they can be.

My community leaders treat everyone with respect and listen and weigh all the citizens’

concerns equally. In my interview with Mr. Barlow, our high school principal, I asked “Is there

any racial issues in the school between the students of different races or cultures or even the

teachers?” He replied “No not that I have heard of and it is my business to know what goes on in

my school.” The school has a no tolerance policy on violence of any kind whether it be bullying

or other types of physical altercations. He did state that in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s there

were a few incidents there were racially motivated and since he had become principal he had not

had any of those sort of problems. I asked if any of the text books, pamphlets,...