Although we have come far since the days when the South was synonymous with discrimination, there is still a strong discriminatory culture permeating southern culture. It is this culture, this close-minded way of thinking that I have lived in my whole life. It is easy to succumb to such narrow thinking when you’re young, and I spent the beginning of my life blindly accepting that some people were better than others. I was taught that things like ethnicity, religion, and sexual preference could make people lesser. Then came the age of enlightenment. I grew up, and began to learn of the world outside of my small town. I read articles and studied history, and realized that the South, or at least my corner of it, was still mired in the ways of the past. All around me were people regurgitating the same ignorant points of view that their parents and their parents’ parents had spewed. I was disgusted by the prejudice that people refused to acknowledge. …show more content…
I refused to stereotype and discriminate, and I paid a price for that. Despite the names I was called and the rudeness I experienced when I refused to join in as people expressed their judgmental beliefs, I stayed true to my beliefs. I defended people, regardless of how I felt about them personally. I believe that if you insist on disliking someone, it should be because of who they are, not what they are. It was a long journey before I became as unbiased as I am now. I caught myself, time after time, trying to fall back into the way I was taught to view people. I would instantly judge someone based on what I saw before even speaking to that person. The final straw in changing how I thought came in the form of my best