Personal Story

It had been a rainy day the day I went with a few of my friends to see the new Terminator movie. I remember because I was complaining about how much I resented taking the bus in this kind of weather. My mother was working late so I couldn't get a ride. What was worse was that the movie theater was not one but two buses away. I walked with my friend Scott to the first bus stop unaware of what the day had in store for us.

It wasn't too long before we got to Atlas mall, where the theater was located. The mall was fairly new, having only been built a few years ago. The neighborhood surrounding it was known as Glendale. It was a nice neighborhood. For the most part it was white middle class people. However you had your share of hispanics and other minorities. The minorities here though aren't similar to the ones in my neighborhood. They act as if they look down upon and don't know their own race. It's like they consider themselves white. It is rather funny seeing that only one neighborhood beyond crossing over to Brooklyn things are so different.

Scott and I had just finished seeing the movie and we were heading home when something very strange and amusing happened. We were waiting for the first bus when a few Hispanic kids decided it be funny to make a few jokes about us in Spanish so we wouldn't understand. They believed me to be white but then came the "astonishing revelation" that I was Hispanic too when we confronted them about what they said. Immediately they became silent and apologized before leaving.

When I finally got home I laughed over the event that happened. Had that scenario occurred in my neighborhood, things would have been very different. The people of my neighborhood know what a light skinned hispanic is and looks like. Some people in my neighborhood are light skinned like me as well. They would never make that mistake. On top of that they would know better not to talk like that in Bushwick because that is asking for trouble. If the confrontation had taken place in Bushwick chances are it would have escalated into a fight, and not just a minor one. It truly was amazing how people of the same ethnic background could be so different by the influence the neighborhood had on them.