personal.docx
My own personal experience with differing cultural identities happened when I was six years old. I grew up in a mostly white neighborhood so, naturally, most of my friends happened to be white. I had of course noticed that I was a bit different from some of my peers but then again, I thought everyone was different in their own way. One day, we came across a newly opened convenience store. The owner was this old white lady probably in her late sixties. It was a hot day and we had been playing in the sun all afternoon. A friend of mine whose parents were a bit well-heeled offers to buy the gang some ice cream since he had just gotten his allowance that week. We all walk in, and take a look around since it was a new store and then head to the counter. Our friend with the money has all the ice creams with him and he pays for them. As we turn to leave, the old lady behind the counter suddenly stops us from and demands to frisk us saying she had seen one of us stuff something into their jacket. We were all confused, but we let her do it. Instead of starting with the friend who was closest to her she walked straight to me and ran her hands through the inside of the jacket I was wearing. When she was satisfied that I hadn’t taken anything, she finally let us go. One of my friends, older than me by at least two years, suddenly spurted out “I can’t believe she would do that to you”. Seeing the look of confusion on my face, my friends explained to me that the only reason she had suspected us – and me in particular – of stealing was because I was Mexican. That was actually the first time I realized why people always treated me differently from my white peers not because of who I am, but because of who they perceived me to be.
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