Ethnocentrism

   This summer, while I was at summer camp, for one of the activities we went to help out on the south side of chicago. We visited Garfield Ridge which is made up of mostly African Americans and was very run down. When we first got there we were being stared at and stood out since my camp was made up of mostly caucasian kids. I felt out of my element and was scared that I was in danger just because it was such a different type of town than the north suburbs of chicago. It surprised me how different the south and north side of chicago are despite only being so little miles apart. I realized, though, that I couldn't feel unsafe just because the people dressed and acted differently. After meeting some of the children and helping out in the park I saw that the people were just as nice as anyone I would meet in the suburbs where I live. I also found myself judging the town because so many people were in the street and I thought that everyone was just lazy instead of working. However, after talking to the people I saw how little the job market was especially for the people who didn't have as good as an education. I was being ethnocentric for assuming that the people didn't want to work instead of realizing most of the people didn't have a choice. There was so much work to be done in the town and with such poverty it's impossible for the town to be able to fix itself. I was grateful for the chance to go to Garfield Ridge because it showed me that just because it's different from where I'm from, it doesn't mean that I'm in "some dangerous ghetto". Now, I'm actually very interested in going back to the south side and volunteering again.