Race and Your Community |1

Final Project: Race and Your Community

Ashly Black

University of Phoenix/Axia College

*Names of people have been change in order to protect identity by the request of that particular person.
* Personal Interview was not listed under Reference page, but is cited within the text.
 Race and Your Community |2

What is a community? According to the dictionary, a community is a social group of any size

whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common

cultural and historical heritage. The community in which I live in is about equal in the amount of

Hispanic, and African American residents; however, it appears to have fewer Caucasians than

both Hispanics and African Americans. In this paper I will consider relations within my

community, local government, schools, and workplace. I will also discuss the problems that an

in-depth interview with Emmanuel King from King’s Group Home for Children (a local

community children’s advocate) and my own personal accounts have made clear. Community

relations within my community are positive for all the members in the areas of government,

schools, and workplaces with only a few minor issues.

Most members in my community do not look like me. I live in a mostly Hispanic and African

American communities so most of my neighbors do not look like me. Even though my

neighborhood is comprised of mostly Hispanics and African Americans, my community has a

great range of Caucasians, African Americans, Asians, Arabs, and Hispanics. The people in my

community get along extremely well.

When it comes to the working environments in my community everything varies. Because my

community is home to the state government as well as the local government and the fact that it is

a larger city and home to the state capitol the amount of jobs increases and the range of who has

them does as well. In an interview that our mayor Charles Meeker had on our local news station

WRAL on May 6, 2010, he stated that although the economy was tough at this point, Raleigh

seemed to be pushing through the recession and job loss has lessened. Charles Meeker also spoke

about diversity in the workplace. He explained that he had visited some local factories and

businesses and they were made of a melting pot of races in all positions. In my workplace I have
*Names of people have been change in order to protect identity by the request of that particular person.
* Personal Interview was not listed under Reference page, but is cited within the text.
 Race and Your Community |3

had a normal blend of African American and Caucasian supervisors, but not very many Hispanic

ones. I have mostly Caucasian and African American associates working along with me as well.

The people in my neighbor have many different levels of careers and many different work fields.

In my family alone my husband is an engineering supervisor for UPS and I am a Copy and Print

Service Manager in Office Max. My community also is made up of people who work in

landscaping, a pastor, and even a doctor. So there are plenty of opportunities for people of all

races to get a good job here without worrying about the race barrier.

The leaders of my community treat all the people in our neighbor very well. The leaders of my

community are Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, and African American, so that ensures that everyone

is being treated fairly and with respect. The leaders of my community have the community’s

interest in mind and not that of a specific racial group. This can be seen in the many programs

that are helping out the citizens of every racial group in my community. In my community we

hold lots of events for kids and adults to get together and get to know each other. The Raleigh

Convention center each year also holds a cultural fair which is an amazing fun way to learn

about the different cultures within your community. Our mayor comes out and hosts the event

and they have theater performances and food tasting and other arts and crafts based from the

different races and cultures in the area. In my interview with Emmanuel King, I asked about the

diversity of the children that come through his group home and also about being an important

leader amongst our community. Mr. King stated that he very rarely sees children from the Asian

community, but the other nationalities and races are frequently paying visits. Emmanuel made it

a point to state that the economy has hit the African American and Hispanic communities much

harder and has caused an increase in the amount of children he takes in from these groups. When

*Names of people have been change in order to protect identity by the request of that particular person.
* Personal Interview was not listed under Reference page, but is cited within the text.
 Race and Your Community |4

I asked Emmanuel about being a leader in the community he stated that he never felt like a leader

just a person who was willing to help where help was needed.

My local government is comprised of mostly Caucasian and African American leaders. We

currently have a Caucasian Mayor and many Caucasians and African Americans fill major seats

in the city council and other parts of the local government. My local government is also home to

the State Government, so the leadership is made up of many different races. The local

government here treats every race well; they also have special programs in place for minority

groups. They provide housing projects for the people who cannot afford a home of their own as

well. These projects to me seem to have about the same number of African American, Caucasian

and Hispanic residents. My neighborhood is further out of the city limits, but once you move

further into the city limits you find more of the homes. My community is split between the

higher, middle, and lower classes. The lower class is mostly Hispanics and African American

with some Caucasians. The middle class section of town is made up of a pretty even amount of

all races. The Higher class section of town is mostly made up of Caucasians and Asians.

My work places a lot of emphasis on diversity and cultural pride. My work has a type of

cultural program where each month is a different heritage month. I think that these heritage

months are the same as the national heritage months. It was interesting to read about other people

who are like me and also learn about those who are different. This past month happened to be

Asian and Pacific Islander month. The text has shown me how most people who immigrated here

where not treated fairly when they first arrived here and are still being discriminated against to

this day. I am glad to live in a community that is no longer racist against people who are not like

me.

*Names of people have been change in order to protect identity by the request of that particular person.
* Personal Interview was not listed under Reference page, but is cited within the text.
 Race and Your Community |5

The local media does a great job of representing people like me. All of the local news

channels have mostly Caucasian new anchors and new reporters that go on the air during

broadcasts. There are several reporters of all different races on all of the local news channels

staff that cover a wide range of stories not just the one associated to their race. I believe that

because I am Caucasian the normal TV channels do not represent people like me for obvious

reasons. I think that the local newspapers and local new channels try to have special stories about

different minority groups just to seem like they are not racist. I also think that the local

newspapers and news channels do a great job of reaching out to Raleigh and helping the people

gain knowledge about the people in their own community like Mayor Meeker’s in-depth

interview on the local news channel.

If I could resolve any inequalities within my community, I would change the school system.

The school system here just changed some school districts to promote diversity. The problem

with these new school districts is that they make children from complete different sides of town

ride the bus for almost two hours because they want the schools to be more diverse. Diversity in

the schools in my community is difficult because the city is separated more by class. The

distance the children have to go just to be more diverse has caused many problems among the

different parents. Emmanuel King also agrees that the school districts have cause tremendous

issues in the community. Emmanuel’s group home for children provides transportation for the

children to get back and forth from school and one major issue he has found is that the children

can come from two different sides of their own neighborhood and go to two completely different

schools on opposite sides of town. Whenever my husband and I became foster parents to a 12

and 14 year old we also found this to be a problem. The 12 year old goes to a elementary school

in a small neighborhood on the north side of town while the 14 year old goes to a magnet middle

*Names of people have been change in order to protect identity by the request of that particular person.
* Personal Interview was not listed under Reference page, but is cited within the text.
 Race and Your Community |6

school in downtown Raleigh. To resolve this problem I would make it a point to have

neighborhood schools. I do not believe that diversity in schools should be resolved by making

children go to a school outside of their community.

My community is a very diversified and accepting one. In this paper I have considered

relations within my community, local government, schools, and workplace. I am glad to live in a

community where I have yet to feel discriminated against and live in a community where people

are extremely accepting of all races. My family moved here back in November just before

Thanksgiving and every one of our neighbors are good people and very welcoming.

*Names of people have been change in order to protect identity by the request of that particular person.
* Personal Interview was not listed under Reference page, but is cited within the text.
 Race and Your Community |7

References

Meeker, C. (2010, May 6). The Local News at 5pm. Raleigh: WRAL.

Preston, D. (2010, March 1). Diversity is Not a Problem. SperlingViews. Retrieved May 16,

2010 from [Link]

id=F8E7F7C2-2745-441C-B63F-4559666E10E8&city=Raleigh_NC&p=53755000

Community. (2009). In [Link]. Retrieved from

[Link]

*Names of people have been change in order to protect identity by the request of that particular person.
* Personal Interview was not listed under Reference page, but is cited within the text.