My english class has recently been studying Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird: a book that deals with the issue of racism. The book has made me think about prejudice and how I am faced with it in my life.
I live out in the country near the town where I go to school, Elmira. Kitchener-Waterloo is only a ten minutes drive away, the nearest city. Despite this nearness, Elmira is entirely different than Waterloo in that we have very little variation in races. When we travel to the city schools, I notice that maybe half of the people there are either of African, Asian or middle eastern decent.
Like me, most of the people who live in Elmira and out in the surrounding countryside, have backgrounds like German, Dutch, or British; European countries. I myself am roughly half British and half German. There are very little Asians, Africans, or Middle Easterners.
Despite the fact that there are hardly any differences in races in Elmira, one of my best friends is asian. She doesn't have any problem having friends or with people judging her because she is so nice to everyone. In fact, everyone who knows her talks about how kind she is. I think we can learn a lesson from her. No matter who they are, my friend doesn't judge them and treats everyone equal.
Even though we don't have a lot of the kind of prejudice most people think of, against blacks or asians, there is a form of prejudice at my school.
Where I live, there are a lot of Mennonites. Even though most Mennonites also originated in Germany, they are considered very different and a lot of segregation occurs between them and me. Most Mennonites only go to school until they reach their fourteenth birthday, after which the boys stay at home learning farming or whatever their family occupation is. The girls learn how to keep house and prepare for keeping their own home some day. However there are some that come to high school but they are mostly in their own program. Some do not wish to associate with other kids because they believe we are "worldly" and may be a bad influence on them.
Yes Mennonites are different. I drive a car, most of them drive buggies. I wear jeans, most of the mennonites girls wear dresses.
But, even though we are different, I think we should strive to be empathetic and attempt to understand others, not only mennonites but anyone, because everyone is different and has their own way of doing things, and their way of life. We are different, but we are all people, brothers for we all live in the same house: Earth.
This was really great Sarah. It is interesting to think that we don't really notice how many menonites there are in Elmira but when we go to the city we notice all the different races of people, and they don't notice all the different races of people. But when they come to elmira im sure they notice a lot of menonites.
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