Race In My Community

Race in My Community

Jen Clark

University of Phoenix

When I began research for this paper, I found it interesting how unaware and uninformed I actually was with racial issues here in my own little world. I think the fact that I was raised to be “color blind” contributes to my ignorance and oblivity to the people surrounding me. Yet another factor is that I now live in a fairly conservative community with very little diversity in the way of race and culture. I grew up in a much larger city which exposed me to every race you can imagine, and I have carried my views regarding the positive interactions I had then into my adult life. Here is my take on the diversity of the much smaller community I live in today.

The City I live in now has roughly 18,000 people as permanent residents. Since well over 9,000 of these residents are Caucasian, I would have to say that most of the people here do look like me (Creek, 2006). I do have a few pink colored streaks in my hair that set me apart from many of the residents who would be far too conservative to imagine dying their hair an unnatural color! Set that one little difference aside and I feel I dress like, talk like, and fit in well with most of the people that live here.

Since I am a Police Officer here in the City, I frequently get recognized by people who have had contact with me. In addition to this, I have a close working relationship with the City Council, City Manager, and other government officials and leaders. Though I sometimes feel like many of these people wish I had a more traditional look, I also get respect when I am around them. Every single person that is a leader in my City is white and middle to upper class. It is difficult to judge the way they feel about others. Since they are in the public eye, most of them are cautious about any actions or remarks which may look negatively upon them. I have never seen any harmful actions first hand, but I imagine the leaders have their own personal feelings about certain people just like everyone else. I personally feel like politicians, in general, are going to tell you what they think you want to hear as oppose to what they really feel. This makes it extremely difficult to try and judge the way they see culture and ethnicity.

It is really difficult for me to judge how people treat me since the majority of my time is spent patrolling the streets, and I am often dealing with people at their worst. Since I try to keep my work constructive and educational for the people I come across, I get a positive reaction in return a good portion of the time. I have had several occasions where a subject has accused me or my partner of only contacting them because of their race or the way they look, but these incidences are few and far between. I am of the opinion that certain people just think that way, and there is nothing you can do to change their mind. Some might call it a “chip on your shoulder”, or, “ignorant”. I feel like people are a product of their environment and in many cases cannot be blamed for the views which have been instilled in them. I always deal with this kind of predicament by handling each situation professionally and by trying turn it into the most productive interaction I can. There will always be those people that don’t want to listen to someone enforcing laws, but for the most part, I feel I relate well to people in a variety of situations.

When I am not at work, I am treated fairly and have never experienced discrimination where I currently live. I have experienced discrimination in the past however. I lived in Washington D.C. for three years when I was in the military and suffered a good portion of those three years from hate crimes and discrimination. This included damage to my car and refusal for housing. I think this negative experience gave me a better understanding of the way minority’s feel on a day to day basis, and it was beneficial in making me who I am today.

Since the manuals I have at work are so generalized towards all Law Enforcement Officers and the many people we deal with, it is difficult to say whether or not they are targeted towards any certain audience. I guess since I am in Law Enforcement, it would be fair to say the manuals are about people like me!

When it comes to the local media, I simply cringe. It is so difficult to read the paper about an incident I was involved in and see them get all of the facts and people wrong. Just recently I was a victim in an assault with a knife with two other Officers. Within two hours of the attack, the media was broadcasting the story with the minimal information they were given. They did, however, take it upon themselves to fill in the blanks where they could not get the answers. I remember watching the news and thinking to myself, “where do they come up with this?” I guess in a way, I felt discriminated against because of the “group” I belong to. There does seem to be a culture around certain jobs and careers like the military, firefighters and police officers.

That being said, there is definitely information in the media that includes people like me. I don’t feel like we are very well represented because in many cases, the proper information is not released. In most cases, I feel the media tries to include information that can benefit all aspects of life. For example, I went to the largest news source in my