I. BACKGROUND
. The city has a mix of all races and is
diverse in its racial
distribution. It is a city where most of the people are
middle class working
folks. While it is a moderate size city, it has few
city problems such as
homelessness,
poverty and violence.
The year was 1992 and it was the
summertime. It was very hot and humid
at about 11:30 at
night and I was in a car driving around looking for
something to
do. It was a boring Tuesday night so I
decided to go to a big
video arcade
hangout called Funworld. There is a
number of video games as
well as young
people. The establishment is a large
building with a large
parking lot.
I was with three other people in the
parking lot when we were approached
by a group of
three other gentlemen. I myself am a
caucasian male under 21
years of
age. Two of the people I was with were
upperclass caucasian males
also under the
age of 21. The last person was also
under 21 and male, but he
was
African-American. One of the caucasians
was a close friend and another
was an
acquaintance. The African-American was
also a friend of mine. Of the
three gentlemen
that approached us, two were hispanic males that appeared to
be over 21 and
the other was a caucasian male that appeared over 21, although
I couldn't be
sure. Although I didn't want to make any
judgements about them,
they looked as if
they were poorly dressed and over 21. So
I deduced that
they were in a
gang or they were drug dealers, high school dropouts, etc.;.
II.ACTION
At first it appeared as if both groups
would just pass by each other
unnoticed but the
caucasian male in the other group made a racist remark about
my
African-American friend. He said
"Look at those dumb dudes walking with
that fucking
spade". My African-American Dave
turned around suddenly and said
"What the
fuck did you say?" The caucasian
male retorted "None of your
fucking business dick!" At this point both groups approached each
other and
then my friend
Dave said "You wanna go", in response the other kid said "Let's
go!" and
shoved him in the chest. The other two
of the caucasian male's
friends jumped on
top of Dave and then we all kind of got into a fight. We
were mostly just
pushing and shoving each other at first.
After about a minute of pushing, two of
the guys jumped on Dave and one
jumped on my
friend Chris. When I was looking at this
I noticed that Chris,
who is
well-built, and the hispanic were mostly wrestling, but Dave was really
getting hit. My first instinct was to help Dave, of
course, because he was
getting killed
and Chris was okay. To my surprise
however, my friend Dan
helped
Chris.
I immediately jumped in to help Dave even
though I was equally good
friends with
Chris and Dave. Dave was getting hit the
hardest and needed help
bad. I pulled one of the guys off Dave and then
pulled the other off. By
this time Chris
and Dan had easily overpowered the hispanic kid, and when the
three kids saw it
was four against three, they just ran off when they saw that
there was more of
us than of them. I helped Dave off the
ground, and saw that
he had a bloody
nose, but he seemed okay when I asked.
Chris and Dan were
fine and didn't
show any ill effects at all.
When I saw the hispanic people and the way
that they were dressed I
started wondering
if they were going to start any trouble.
My attitude toward
was possibly
prejudiced, but under the circumstances, at night with the
clothing that was
being worn, I think (obviously correctly), that I was right
in the conclusion
that they were out to cause trouble. I
was taught no to the
prejudiced, but
in this situation I'm wondering if what I did was considered
prejudiced
because I was correct in my first assumption of them. The problem
is that though
the actual instigator seemed to be that caucasian male from the
other group, and
not the hispanics. I feel a bit puzzled
as to how my
thinking and
value or belief system could be construed in that situation. I
believed that
they would cause problems and they did cause problems; but was
it the wrong
thing to believe? I don't know
III. REFLECTION
Looking back at the event I keep thinking
about why Dan went over to
help Chris who
was doing fine, instead of helping Dave who was getting killed.
Dan is not friends with either of the two but
merely acquaintances with both
of them. It may not be right but I keep thinking. that there was a little
racial motivation
in the fact that Dan went to help Chris and not Dave. Why
else would he
have helped Chris instead of Dave. I
also noticed that he
wasn't too
sympathetic to Dave's feelings and didn't rush over to see how he
was doing, or if
he was hurt
At first these thoughts didn't really
enter my mind, but the next day
when I looked
back on it and examined what had transpired, I started thinking
that perhaps
there were some hidden racial overtones in how Dan acted.
Although he
didn't say anything or act offensively to Dave, perhaps not being
either of the
two, I was able to notice their actions and how Dan was acting
towards Dave.
I was feeling confused and hurt at the
game time. I was feeling
confused because
I didn't know why one of my friends would act this way. If
one of my friends
did act this way then I was hurt both because of the gap
between my values
and his as well as feeling confused as to when he started
acting this way, or
if he had always been racist and I just didn't notice. I
was starting to
wonder if I knew my friends as well as I though or if perhaps
we have drifted
in different directions in values and beliefs.
I don't know what role my thoughts and
feelings played in the
altercation
between the two groups other than the fact that I thought of
helping my
friends. I also felt a great amount of
hatred towards the hispanic
race. Looking back I know that was wrong but at the
time when my friends and
I were in a fight
with them I hated them so much I wanted to kill them. I
know I wouldn't
have if it came down to it, but because of two people I hated
their entire
race.
I think the fact that I was white and one
of my friends was black and
another of my
friends was white affected the situation largely. Also to a
degree the fact
that two of the other men were hispanic and the amount of
hatred I felt
toward them. As for my friend, for a
couple of seconds I almost
felt ashamed to
be white, because someone of my own race was being prejudiced
towards my
Afro-American friend. Although I don't
want to make it seem as if
I am ashamed to
be white, at the time I felt as if I had to represent my whole
race in feeling
bad towards what happened to my friend Dave and also how my
friend Dan acted.
I think a factor that has not been
discussed that was prevalent in this
case was the fact
that the three other gentlemen started the altercation and
not us. This made me feel more hostile towards them
and the fact that we
really had
nothing to do with the fight starting, but yet because of the fact
that we were
three caucasians and an Afro-American was different to them.
They didn't like
what they saw so they tried to change it by any means
possible.
I think that Dan was perhaps confused and
perhaps upset at the same
time. He was struggling internally because two
people he knew were involved
in a fight and he
had to make a choice between the two as to which one to
help. On the one hand one person he knew was white
and in a fight but he
didn't seem like
he needed help. On the other hand, Dave
who is African
American seemed
like he needed help in a fight but didn't get any except from
me.
Chris was thinking that the other three
men had no right to do what they
did and they
would have to pay for their actions as well as their words. I
really can't say
what the white man was thinking when he said that because I
don't know why
anyone would do something like that. As
for the other two, I
know that they
felt the same and got more than they bargained for when we got
in a fight.
I think that the different social groups
here create an obvious issue.
The fact that a
white and two hispanics were fighting against an African
American and two
whites shows that the race was the key factor.
This fight
alone was a
melting pot of individuals. I think in
my mind that the fat that
Dan was white
affected his decisions, not in a big way, but in some sort of
way. I don't really know about the other three,
but as for Chris and I, race
affected us in
terms of white and hispanic because that's who we were mad at
the most. I don't know why this would be the case, but
it just was.
I believe that African-American viewing
this would have felt the most
strongly. The
event they would have sen unfolding in front of them would have
hurt a lot. They would have jumped in to help not only my
friend Dave but
also all of us
because we were all trying to fight for the same thing out
there. African-American's also would have been
puzzled as to why one white
man would help
out a black man but not two. The way
events unfolded would
have made them
think twice.
In an odd way I feel another thing that
would have made people jump in
to help was the
fact that a caucasian and an African-American were fighting
for each other
. As much as we hate to admit it that is
not a scene we see
nearly enough of
in this day and age. Something has got
to be done about it
immediately
(I think I got
all of it cut over)
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