My Community And Its Deception In Relation To Race

I remember the day I arrived at SeaTac airport, I was scared. I just turned 19 and I was in the Military. It was my first day assuming active duty and I had no clue what the future had install for me. My first impression of the Seattle Tacoma area when it comes to race was this area was predominantly white I had no clue that there were Indian tribes, Russians and a lot of Asians present. I did not even think there might be a spec of black people in the vicinity. The only thing I knew was that Canada was a neighboring country and the border was close. As time went on and I began to settle down in the area I realized that the area had an influx of different races and cultures and that this city might be one of the most diverse in cities in the United States.

The city of Tacoma is called the seat of Pierce County, in Western Washington, United States. Located about 30 miles south of Seattle, you could determine where it is from the commencement bay of Puget Sound. The bay was a starting point of a US surveying party led by a lieutenant Charles Wilkes; he was the one who named it commencement bay. General Morton McCarver defined the boundaries for the settlement in 1868 which was called commencement city it was later called Tacoma which was the Indian name for Mt. Rainier. Mt. Rainier seats about 45 miles southeast of the commencement bay. In 1873 port facilities were created; sawmill factories were also built. The Northern Pacific Railway also arrived around this period and built a terminus referred to as the New Tacoma both communities then merged in 1883. The city of Tacoma is a lumber-processing centre; its chief industries are still lumber-based, the city consists of shipyards, smelters, foundries, electrochemical plants, and food-processing factories. (Retrieved August 2, 2007, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online)

The total population of Tacoma is about 191,934, 48% of the population is males while 52% are females the estimate number of people who claim to be white are about 125,620 that is about 65.4% of the population, 22,920 are African Americans, 19,935 are of Asian descent, about 16,238 are Hispanic or (Latino) of any race, native Alaskan or Native Americans are about 1.3% of the population and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders comprise of about 1.5% of the population.(RetrievedAugust2, 2007, from http://www.factfinder.census.gov/)

The neighborhoods in Tacoma are rigid and real quiet compared to any East Coast neighborhood and even though the statistic might suggest that this city is crowded, You won’t really notice walking downtown Tacoma at night the most deserted downtown in the United States has to be downtown Tacoma. The city is split into two by the major freeway (Interstate 5) that leads from the north in Vancouver B.C to as far as Los Angeles in the south. Some of the poorest groups mostly live on the east of Tacoma while the middle class and well off groups stay on the western-northwestern part of the city.

I lived next to the reservation on the eastern part of the city for a number of years now. A wide range of people live in my community called the “Salishan”. This is also an Indian name but is known as the slum of the city. Other than the concentrated Native American group which lives in this area there is also blacks and a concentrated amount of poor Asians (Cambodians Vietnamese to be exact.) Interaction amongst this group is rampant and they seem to protect each other and work well with each other.

The area I live is considered reservation property so we hardly face scrutiny from outside sources. The area is governed by the reservation tribal council which means they have their own set of rules and regulations that you have to answer to. From my point of view I feel like in my community I have been treated very well since the day I moved in my neighbors have been very nice and very kind. Most of my neighbors consisted of African Americans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Filipinos, Koreans and Russians. As a matter of fact most of these groups are now mixed and have created a whole new group entirely sort of like a melting pot. There is also a strong presence of Hispanic people in my community.

Two years ago, I owned a 1988 Buick Park Avenue, it was an old car. I worked in Fife at the time about 4 miles from the Emerald Queens Casino the heart of the reservation. Making it to and from work everyday was a big hassle. Sometimes, strange things happen to the car that just happens to be way beyond my explanation. Periodically the headlights refuse to work at night but work during the day, that sort of thing. Well, on this particular day my brake lights refused to work it just so happened that on pulling out of my driveway a police officer was doing his routine patrol. I got pulled over and I had no insurance so I got a ticket and was allowed to go to work because shortly after that my brake lights started working again. So I got the brake lights ticket revoked.

A few weeks later I had just bought a brand new car and I had insurance with that in mind, I decided to do a little over the speed limit since I was running a little late to work. I got pulled over again and since I did not take care of the old ticket I had to show up in court. Since I was living on tribal land I had to go to the tribal court. The honorable Judge was a woman and she was very fair I got off on one of the tickets and I ended up paying about 35 dollars compared to 120 dollars I would have had to pay elsewhere at a different district. I noticed that at the Casino lots of minorities are awarded opportunities for employment another plus for people in the area.

Members of my community are very nice people I noticed when I moved in to the community that they all brought stuff we might need or really do need like fruits, fish from my neighbor who was a fisherman and even curtains because we could not afford to buy one when we moved in initially. The strong point of my community is their warmth gesture towards people. It shows when we first moved in and it continues to show when outsiders come around. Now this is my community which I seldom leave except for when I have to go to work and go shopping or do stuff that is deemed very important. Outside of my community, majority of the members of my community complain of racial profiling and also fall victim to various forms of discrimination and prejudice.

An example of this is my Uncle Jim, who wanted to get a house in the Fircrest area on the western part of Tacoma; he was not even allowed to walk through the property till his wife who was white went and represented him. Fircrest is notorious for this sort of practices. In a recent survey I conducted amongst my friends in my community, the neighborhood which they refuse to drive after seven o’ clock at night is fircrest. Police Officers are allegedly pulling