Describe a Personal Experience Where Your Race or Ethnicity Made a Difference Essay

Race and ethnicity has influenced my life in many ways and up until now I am living with the discriminations that comes with not belonging to a certain group of people. Worldwide racial discrimination race is common and even more common here in the United States. People make choices subconsciously based on the racial group they belong to. Individuals have preference of people of their own ethnicity over people of a different ethnic group. I personally have experienced some sort of racial discrimination and am sure every one else is a victim of racial discrimination just as much as I am. I believe if every student, staff or faculty that will be asked their opinions about racial inequality, they will gladly oppose racism. But some of us consciously and hypocritically practice racial discrimination, which I find really inappropriate. My recent experience was in regards to a scholarship opening recently in the school. This scholarship I believe was sponsored by the staff and faculties of the school to support students who do not get any help from the government and have a good academic standing. I was just done with my classes for the day one evening and was about to leave campus when I received a phone call from a friend who told me about the scholarship. At the time I was with another friend and I told her about it and we both went to the office of the scholarship coordinator for the application. Unfortunately the office was closed. We then decided to come back the next day as early as we could. My friend couldn’t make it the morning and she asked me to get her the application if am able to come in in the morning. I went through the trouble of leaving home real early the next day just so I can go get the application and when I got there around 8:30am, the coordinator was still not there. I decided to wait anticipating she will be coming in by 9:00am, but I waited up until 9:30 and she still didn’t show up. so I decided to leave since I had an exam that day at 10am. I returned again after my exam at 12pm, now she had a note on her door saying she will be in her office at 1pm. I went back to the library to study for my next exam and I made sure I was back at exactly 1pm. She still wasn’t back; I decided to wait a little while at the door. While waiting, she came and I requested for the application and she told me she didn’t have the application and she gave me her card to make an appointment with her to come in for the application and that she cannot meet up until after the 29th which is suppose to be the dead line of the application. Believe it or not, I stupidly left the office thinking that is the same procedure everyone is going to have to go through. An hour later, my friend who is not the same race as the coordinator but looks like she is of her race, went in and was given the application. Some times it is just too heart breaking to know after meeting all the requirements of something, you still do not really meet the requirement just because of your skin color. We talk about how racial discrimination is inappropriate, but we still practice racial favoritism anyways. Like in the case of this scholarship, they could have just written on the requirements, you have to belong to a certain race to qualify, but it is not right to do that. I felt so depressed realizing in the very end that I wasted all my time and energy for nothing because I do not actually meet the real requirements. I do not belong to the ideal racial group. I believe day in and day out; other students just like me have to deal with situations like this. Base on this experience and some other experiences from my pass, my race and ethnicity had influence the kind of choices I make. If we continue making choices to satisfy our selves by making preference of people of our type rather than the qualified people, it will be hard to make progresses. I believe every one deserve equal opportunities regardless of their race and that is the only way we as individuals and the community on a whole can be well developed and successful.