Preventing Prejudice

Normally my articles consist of fun projects and things to make learning fun. Well, this week I am taking a little more serious approach to a problem that has been brewing and finally surfaced the last few weeks here in the small rural town that I live in.

We are approaching Cinco de Mayo this weekend (which will be last weekend when you read this). Due to some ignorance and misinformation, a member of our society wrote a letter to the editor of our newspaper a few weeks ago about how much they hate Mexicans and think that the way they are treated is unfair to the rest of “us”. This person categorized “us” and “them”. It has raised a great debate that is still ongoing through the letters to the editor of the paper.

Our town has become increasingly populated in the last twelve years with people immigrating from a small community in Mexico. In 1990 we were a small community of 3811 mostly white farmers. The 2000 Census report shows that our population more than doubled in that ten years to an alarming 9841. (I was amazed when I looked that up!)

This has caused some controversy that has, up until now, been unspoken and not dealt with. Not only is it affecting our community (there are quite a few little Mexican shops here now) but it is affecting our schools, which means it is affecting our children as well. What can our society be teaching our children with such hateful feelings towards some one who is different than what we are used to?

Spend some time with your children, especially if they have friends of a different race and explain how very unique each one of us is, no matter what our skin color or origin. Let them know that even though we are all different, we are still very much the same. Make a day out of learning about another culture. You will teach them greater things than just what foods they eat and what holidays they celebrate. You will be teaching them that we all generally share the same values and want the same things out of life.

Here are a few things that I want to pass along just for your information. I am referring to Hispanics that I know about in my area, but most of this information is generalized.

Most of the immigrants are not eligible for public assistance, like food stamps and welfare.

These people are leaving a very poor country, and held jobs that, in our society would be considered middle and upper class jobs, to take on jobs that most of us would rather not have.

The reasons they are taking these jobs is the fact that they are able to take better care of their families here with a greater possibility of their children getting a better education (or an education at all, for that matter).

Most Mexicans can speak English, but are embarrassed that they might make a mistake and look foolish to someone fluent in the language.

Undocumented does not mean the same thing as illegal. Undocumented means that they are in the process of becoming a citizen, but don’t have any rights yet.

With the events of September 11 still lingering in our memories, we should all be proud to be American citizens, but we need to not forget our heritage. America is known for the mixed races that make up its population. Unless you have 100% Indian blood running through your veins, somewhere, at some time in history, your ancestors were once the immigrants that now make up this beautiful country.