Racism discussion

Today's class discussion really bothered me. I never really thought I was "racist," but last year in my sociology class our teacher asked me a question kind of like your dark alley one. I was shocked when I heard my answer. I totally agree with what you said about how everyone is somewhat racist. I think what you learn in school has a lot to do with everything. You are taught all the negative things about minorty groups and are taught that they were the bad ones and we were just helping them. I really think that if people didn't put such an emphasis on the differences between our skin colors there wouldn't be such big problems. Having to check the caucasian box on tests is stupid, it shouldn't mattter what your skin color is. Everyone is taking the same test to measure their abilities, not to see if they are smart because they are asian. My mom grew up in Sisseton, SD which has a reservation. My grandparents still live there and it's not even an hour from our house so we go there alot. I have friends that are Native American that I met through gymnastics and through my grandparents neighbors and they are awesome. One of my cousins is Native American and at her wedding we were the minority, but it wasnt a big deal. I think that being exposed to them more than any other person my town has kind of helped. I feel more comfortable and I'm not scared because of the stereotypes they hold. People always think of the bad things when they think of Black people or Indians. White people kill people and live off the government and do drugs too, but I think that is just more hidden and its not thought of as oh they did that because they're white. Sometimes it's scary the stories that my mom would tell me when she was younger about what would happen at school. It's weird going to my hometown and all my friends talk about how that town is soooo scary and parts of it are, but they'll only hate on you if they know you're from Milbank since our towns are HUGE rivals.