Arrivals....There Goes the Neighborhood

Living in a city as diverse as Chicago, it's common to hear a lot about the different neighborhoods and the one or two ethnicties that make up the majority of the population in the area. And occasionally, you hear someone talking about that one person or one family who isn't the race that makes up practically the entire block.

Yesterday, our American Lit teacher brought up Columbus and his impact on the Native Americans, how it was mostly just take take take from the them to benefit the Europeans. We also discussed a little about the general idea of two different groups of people meeting. In today's world, when different groups of people meet, in a neighborhood situation, it's usually either something bad happens or nothing happens. But that's just my personal opinion. I live in a normal pretty peaceful neighborhood and everyone's nice, but the tenants of the house on our left have always been trouble-making people. A few years ago, there were some gang members that lived in that house. They went around trespassing into people's property, stealing, breaking car windows and rear mirrors, etc. They're gone now, but only to be replaced by a really loud family that blasts the TV and radio 24/7, nonstop. Isn't it obvious now why I'm so negative about this?

However, despite all that pessimism, I do see a brighter side to this. In a different situation, like in school, the meeting of different groups results in a lot of good things. I have a habit of hanging out with people from different backgrounds and races, so I get to learn a lot of their cultures. It's quite interesting. Every once in a while when you come across people who have a lot of influence from another race, it's especially interesting to see how that person is "Asian at heart" or "Mexican at heart". They defy the stereotypes of their races much more obviuosly than others, and it creates much more diversity and tolerance and it eliminates the ignorance people have to hold specific views on how people from certain races should act or be like.

I'm gonna end this by going back to the Christopher Columbus thing. Yes they did take a lot from the Native Americans, but you know, if it weren't for them and people like them, we wouldn't have a lot of things in America, in other parts of the world. Things like horses and diversity in America, tomatoes and corn in Europe, and so on. So maybe there's a good side and a bad side to all situations like this. I just prefer to stick with one.