Week 9 - Race and Your Community

Week 9 Assignment - Race and Your Community

Brian Self

ETH/125

March 4, 2012

Nancy Messer

Week 9 Assignment - Race and Your Community

While Wichita, Kansas, is most dominantly populated by White Americans, living in the downtown area does provide a more diverse view of the city. Data on racial diversity shows that Wichita is populated with Whites at 67.7%, Hispanics at 13.3%, Blacks at 10.5%, and Asians at 4.8% according to city-data.com ("Races In Wichita, Kansas (ks) Detailed Stats: Ancestries, Foreign Born Residents, Place Of Birth", 2012). These numbers represent Wichita as being more culturally diverse that Kansas on the average as of 2009. By living in the downtown area, I am privileged to see and interact with an even more diverse group of people daily. Downtown Wichita is the heart of the city and is full of all different racial and cultural viewed people. Every day I have the pleasure to interact with many people, some that speak English well and some that know only a few words, some that share my skin color and others that make me look ghostly. It is these interactions that help me make up the person that I want to be in this world.

Originally growing up in Augusta, KS, which is just 15 miles outside of Wichita, was very secluded town that seemed very far from any type of racial diversity. By being raised in that town, I saw that there were definite signs of racial problems when any new members of the community where introduced and I am not referring to them being of European decent. I witnessed the end result of a cross burning in the front yard of a newly moved in black family when I was in grade school and really did not understand what a hate crime was until I was much older. The town has on the outside appearance evolved since those days, but I am certain that there are still people living there with a more racially negative view of the world. My parents raised me not to judge a person based on outward appearances of any nature. Mom would...