Meaghan Rowland Post 1

My personal ethnic and racial heritage is pretty simple considering I am fifty percent Swedish and fifty percent Scottish. My maternal grandma and paternal grandpa were both 100% Swedish. My maternal grandpa and paternal grandma were both 100% Scottish. It was interesting to find that both sides of my family were a split of the same two heritages. I first became aware of race and ethnicity when I was five when my cousins who lived in LA came to visit. When they came with their dad/my uncle, I was confused why they didn't look like us. Granted my cousin Chandel and I could be twins if not for skin color. Their mom was black and their dad was white. We lived in a farming community with very little diversity so when my friends came over and saw my cousins they were put back and didn't know how to respond. My parents and uncle sat down with my cousins and me to explain why we looked different and how we could be treated differently especially in Kennedy. I was always taught to judge not based on looks but on how people act. No matter what race or ethnic background judge more on if someone is inconsiderate and rude or polite and friendly. I agree with this however you can't base the entire judgement solely based on their personality. If someone has a difficult back story that you don't know about you shouldn't hold it against them. Witnessing racism with my cousins was difficult growing up. They came with me to my grandma's house a few years later and my grandpa wouldn't even talk to them because they were black. In return my cousins were not as polite as they should have been to my grandma even though she was welcoming and tried to be nice to them. They were still hurt and felt discriminated by my grandpa so they were taking it out on others that were there. It was sad to see that even though all of these people were a part of my life and my family they were not accepting of one another.