Ongoing Prejudice

At the beginning of this school year, about 20 other students from University High School and I were invited to be part of a diversity group that worked along with the Anti-Defamation League. We talked a lot of the prejudices and racism against not only our personal races, but prejudice around the world in general. Among the students there were African-Americans, Jewish people, Christians, upper class and middle class students, straights and homosexuals, Latinos, white people, and other ethnicities and races. Every race, ethnicity, gender, belief, or being has a prejudice against them. Anyone who is different in some shape or form than the “norm” has some discrimination against them.
We shared stories about racism towards us. I’m Mexican, and I haven’t had any significant injustices done towards me, besides stupid little jokes here and there about stereotypes like mowing lawns. But, I realized that it can get a lot worse than that.
It’s obvious that there is racism everywhere you turn, but this class opened my eyes to how it affects everyone. People told stories about being beat up, called names, switching schools, and being hurt so deep down just for who they were. You could say that people are getting better, because we don’t have slaves anymore. But now prejudice and racism are just being used in other means. So many people today still suffer from these prejudices. It is hard to grasp why people are uncomfortable with someone different than themselves. Why would someone want everyone to be the same? Diversity is one of the most important things that the human race has.